puritanical
adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L339645 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /pjʊəɹ.ɪˈtæn.ɪ.kəl/ / /pjɚ.ɪˈtæn.ɪ.kl̩/
adj
Etymology: Etymology tree English puritanic Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālisbor. Old French -albor. ▲ Latin -ālis Old French -elbor. ▲ Latin -ālisbor. Middle English -al English -al English puritanical From puritanic + -al.
- Of or pertaining to the Puritans, or to their doctrines and practice.
“The host proposed divers puritanical fancies—nay, once hinted at a head of Cromwell himself; but the hostess overruled all these proposals, and stood firm by the Sun.”
- Precise in observance of legal or religious requirements; strict; overscrupulous; rigid (often used by way of reproach or contempt).
“Mrs. Barrymore is of interest to me. She is a heavy, solid person, very limited, intensely respectable, and inclined to be puritanical. You could hardly conceive a less emotional subject. Yet I have told you how, on the first night here, I heard her sobbing bitterly, and since then I have more than once observed traces of tears upon her face. Some deep sorrow gnaws ever at her heart. Sometimes I wonder if she has a guilty memory which haunts her, and sometimes I suspect Barrymore of being a domestic tyrant.”
“Exogamy […] has few or none of the quaint superstitions which lend a certain picturesque charm to totemism. It is, so to say, a stern Puritanical institution. Its rigid logic, its complex rules, its elaborate terminology, its labyrinthine systems of relationship, it presents an aspect somewhat hard and repellant.”
noun
Etymology: Etymology tree English puritanic Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālisbor. Old French -albor. ▲ Latin -ālis Old French -elbor. ▲ Latin -ālisbor. Middle English -al English -al English puritanical From puritanic + -al.
- One who holds puritanical attitudes.