prentice

An old (Middle English) aphetic form of apprentice: that is, a form which lost the unstressed initial vowel a and reduced the initial double pp to a single p.

prentice (plural prentices)

1. (obsolete) An apprentice.
   • 1682, John Lacy, Sir Hercules Buffoon, or The Poetical Squire, act II, scene iv:

     Faith, bind him prentice to a lord; by the same rule he'll be a lord when he's out of his time.

prentice (third-person singular simple present prentices, present participle prenticing, simple past and past participle prenticed)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To apprentice.

• (noun, verb): apprentice, 'prentice

• terpenic