Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a term of abuse.

1519		J. Rastell The Four Elements line 1377: hum.: Then let us some lusty balet syng. Yng.: Nay, syr, by the hevyn kyng, For me thynkyth it serveth for no thyng, All suche pevysh prykyeryd song.
1592		Arden of Feversham line 1184: Watch thee out comming of that prickeard cur, And then let me alone to handle him.
1638		Ford Fancies I ii: Th’art a prickeard foyst, a cittern headed gew gaw, a knacke, a snipper-snapper.
1682		Litany from Geneva n.p.: The Prick-ear’d Levite, that can without pain Swear Black into White, then Unswear it again.
1690		D’Urfey Collin’s Walk canto 1 34: Thy prick-ear’d Sire taught fallacy.
1871		‘George Eliot’ Middlemarch I 282: Fred Viney had called Lydgate a prig, and now Mr. Chichely was inclined to call him prick-eared.
1984		A. Sayle Train to Hell 92: Where does that leave your supposed methodology – you bollock-brained, prick-eared cunt?

2. (also prick-ear) crop-headed, thus generic for a puritan.

1569–70		T. Preston Cambyses E2: Thou whorson knauve and prickeard boy.
1599		Jonson Every Man Out of his Humour I i: S’blood, why should such a prick-ear’d hind as this be rich, ha?
1651		C.G. Cock English-law 56: [T]hese are your prick-eared Rogues, the Tub-preachers (and indeed he was a Zealot).
1655		‘Philomusus’ ‘The Bantling of a Brownist’ Marrow of Complements 69: May thou [...] be a prettie prick-ear Brat.
a.1661		‘To Whom it Concerns’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) I 113: Correct your prick-ear’d Servants.
1672		‘Song’ Covent Garden Drollery 29: Prey mark the tricks of this prick ear’d slave [...] Hee’d kill his King, to preserve his cause.
1681		‘The Norwich Loyal Litany’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1885) V:1 187: And may the Prick-ear’d Party that / Have Coyn enough in Cupboard, / Forbear to shiver an Estate.
1697		T. Oates Eikōn vasilikē tetartē 25: I wonder therefore our Prick-eared Priests would ever ascend a Pulpit.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Prickear’d Fellow, a Crop, whose Ears are longer than his Hair.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1744		Machine 2: O ye poor Drabs, who [...] ply the Prick-ear’d Prentice in the Street.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Prick [...] A prick-eared fellow; one whose ears are longer than his hair: an appellation frequently given to puritans, who considered long hair as the mark of the whore of Babylon.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].