Prog

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. Informal British slang for food or provisions ; to rummage around in search of something to eat ; a shortened name for progressive rock music
2. Old slang meaning food or supplies ; to poke about looking for something edible ; a clipped term for the genre of progressive rock
3. Food, especially in British informal speech ; to forage or hunt about for something to eat ; the short form of progressive rock, a music style

Etymology: Prog, meaning food, belongs to the slang of British schoolchildren and other informal speech, and its history is a short chain of clippings. The source ties it to "by clipping of various words," and the most likely candidate is "prog" as a shortened form of "proke," a variant that is itself a dialect or slang form. Because the source offers no firm first-use date, nothing more can be said with confidence about when it arose. The word's current senses are therefore simply the result of a clipped, informal form taking on a food meaning. Clippings like this are common in slang: a longer word is cut down to a single syllable and then given a fresh, casual sense. Nothing in the record suggests a deliberate coinage or a single inventor.