pruce

Etymology

From Middle English Pruce (“Prussia”) (whence also spruce), from new Latin, from a Baltic language, probably Old Prussian; for more, see Prussia. Compare French Prusse.

Noun

pruce (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Prussian leather.
   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; Translated into Verse, from Homer, Ovid, Boccace, & Chaucer: With Original Poems, London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, within Gray's Inn Gate next Gray's Inn Lane, OCLC 228732415, book III, page 50:

     Some for Defence would Leathern Bucklers uſe, / Of folded Hides; and others Shields of Pruce.

References

• pruce in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913