prig [M16th] A prig is a self-righteously moralistic person who behaves as if they are superior to others. Perhaps they would feel less superior if they knew that a prig in the 16th century was a tinker or a petty thief. As time went on the word came to be applied to anyone who was disliked, and by the end of the 17th century it was used specifically to describe someone who was affectedly and self-consciously precise.