purse: [OE] Purse was borrowed into Old English from late Latin bursa (source of English bursar [13] and reimburse [17]), which went back to Greek búrsa. This originally meant ‘skin, leather’, and hence came to be used for ‘wineskin, bag’. The Latin word was also borrowed into the Celtic languages, where it produced Gaelic sporan, source of English sporran. => bursar, reimburse, sporran
purse (n.)
Old English pursa "little bag made of leather," especially for carrying money, from Medieval Latin bursa "leather purse" (source also of Old French borse, 12c., Modern French bourse; see bourse), from Late Latin bursa, variant of byrsa "hide," from Greek byrsa "hide, leather." Change of b- to p- perhaps by influence of Old English pusa, Old Norse posi "bag."
Meaning "woman's handbag" is attested from 1951. Meaning "sum of money collected as a prize in a race, etc.," is from 1640s. Purse-strings, figurative for "control of money," is from early 15c. Purse-snatcher first attested 1902 (earlier purse-picker, 1540s). The notion of "drawn together by a thong" also is behind purse-net (c. 1400).
purse (v.)
c. 1300, "put in a purse;" c. 1600 as "draw together and wrinkle" (as the strings of a money bag), from purse (n.). Related: Pursed; pursing.
实用例句
1. She looked at me and then reached in her purse for cigarettes.
她看看我，接着伸手去包里拿香烟。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The bank has been too slow in loosening the purse strings.
银行一直迟迟不愿放开资金。
来自柯林斯例句
3. She folded it up, and tucked it into her purse.
她将其折叠起来，塞进了钱包里。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Sue never carried anything other than the teeniest purse.
休从来都只带着一只小钱包。
来自柯林斯例句
5. Princess Anne does not have a bottomless purse.
