"look inquisitively, look closely or with scrutinizing curiosity," c. 1300, prien "to peer in," a word of unknown origin, perhaps related to late Old English bepriwan "to wink." Related: Pried; prying. As a noun, "act of prying, curious or close inspection," from 1750; meaning "inquisitive, intrusive person" is from 1845.

"raise or move by force," 1823, from a noun meaning "large lever used to raise or move heavy things, crowbar;" an alteration of prize (as though it were a plural) in its obsolete sense of "lever" (c. 1300), from Old French prise "a taking hold, grasp" (see prize (n.2)).

also *ghed-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to seize, to take." 

It forms all or part of: apprehend; apprentice; apprise; beget; comprehend; comprehension; comprehensive; comprise; depredate; depredation; emprise; enterprise; entrepreneur; forget; get; guess; impresario; misprision; osprey; predatory; pregnable; prehensile; prehension; prey; prison; prize (n.2) "something taken by force;" pry (v.2) "raise by force;" reprehend; reprieve; reprisal; reprise; spree; surprise.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Greek khandanein "to hold, contain;" Lithuanian godėtis "be eager;" second element in Latin prehendere "to grasp, seize;" Welsh gannu "to hold, contain;" Russian za-gadka "riddle;" Old Norse geta "to obtain, reach; to be able to; to beget; to learn; to be pleased with;" Albanian gjen "to find."

1570s, "perceive the smell of;" 1640s; "pry, search in a meddlesome way;" from nose (n.). Related: Nosed; nosing.

masc. proper name, the Biblical name of the apostle to the Gentiles, from Latin Paulum (nominative Paulus), a Roman surname of the Aemilian gens, literally "small," from PIE *pau-ro-lo-, suffixed form of root *pau- (1) "few, little." Other forms include Old French Pol, Italian Paolo, Spanish Pablo, Russian Pavel. Paul Pry as a name for a very inquisitive person is by 1820. Related: Paulian; Paulite.

"to acquire by irregular means," 1915, an alteration of dialectal scrunge "to search stealthily, rummage, pilfer" (1909), which is of uncertain origin. OED reports it probably altered from dialectal scringe "to pry about." Or perhaps it is related to (or a variant of) scrouge, scrooge "push, jostle" (1755, also Cockney slang for "a crowd"), which are probably suggestive of screw, squeeze, etc. Scrounge was popularized in the military during World War I, frequently as a euphemism for "steal." Related: Scrounged; scrounger; scrounging.