prawn
n.n. a large, tasty shrimp that people often eat. It is similar to a lobster but smaller and usually found in salt water.
n. a large, edible crustacean of the family Penaeidae, typically found in tropical and subtropical waters. Often used in culinary contexts to refer to the edible shrimp.
We ate grilled prawns with a fresh lemon sauce.
The restaurant serves a daily special of sautéed prawns with garlic and white wine.
While the term 'prawn' is common in British English, it is often replaced by 'shrimp' in American English to distinguish the smaller, freshwater variety from the larger, saltwater species.
First attested early 1400s as various Middle English forms prayne, prane, praune, and prawne, which present no clear cognates in languages other than English. The forms suggest a hypothetical Old English form prægn, where æg would have evolved into Middle English ay, but it is unclear if the word is of Germanic origin, from another European language, or loaned from a substrate. In the Isle of Wight, a word prankle ("prawn") is recorded and thought to be related. Century, following Skeat, suggested transposition of an unrecorded Old French parne, *perne related to Spanish perna (“a flat shellfish”), Old Italian perna and diminutive pernochie, parnocchie, glossed as "shrimps or prawne, fishes" by John Florio, but the OED considers Florio's entry incorrect and the suggested connection semantically and phonologically implausible. Etymology 1 sense 3 ("woman with attractive body and unattractive face") is from the idea of discarding the head of a prawn before eating it.
An alternative spelling of pron (pronounced identically with cot-caught merger), which in turn is a corrupted spelling of porn.