What it means
Proper is the go-to intensifier meaning very, really, or completely. In everyday chat you stick it in front of almost anything to crank the volume: proper good, proper tired, proper buzzing, proper raging. It can also keep its old-school sense of genuine or correct, like a proper cuppa or a proper job. Big in Yorkshire and across the UK, and dead useful.
Usage examples
"It’s proper brass monkeys out, but I’ve gotta nip to t’ shop for milk. If I don’t get a brew, I’ll be proper mardy."
"She turned up to the school run in pyjamas and slippers, looked proper knackered after the night feeds, but waved at all the mums like nothing was up."
"By half ten we were proper soaked through, the rain came sideways for an hour straight, and the dog refused to leave the puddle outside the pub door."
"That chippy was proper good, I’m still thinking about those chips now."
"I was proper fuming when the last train got cancelled and everyone just had to stand there in the cold."
Where it comes from
Proper comes from Old French propre, rooted in Latin proprius. It first meant something fitting, correct, or the real deal. In British English, especially up North and in the Midlands, it loosened up and started doing extra graft as an intensifier, so proper good or proper tired just means really, fully, no messing.
Other ways to say it
Editors of this term
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