pragmaticadj.n.
/praɡˈmatɪk/, U.S. /præɡˈmædɪk/ A. adj.† 2. Busy, active, esp. officiously so; interfering, meddling, intrusive. Obsolete.† 3. Conceited, self-important; opinionated; dictatorial, dogmatic. Obsolete.
1. Relating to the affairs of a state or community. Chiefly in pragmatic sanction n. now historical a decree or ordinance relating to the affairs of a state which is issued by the head of state; an imperial or royal ordinance having the force of law.The term pragmatic sanction is applied to certain decrees of western European sovereigns, such as the one attributed to St Louis of France, 1268, containing articles directed against the claims of the Papacy; those of Charles VII of France in 1438, and of the Diet of Mainz in 1439, embodying the most important decisions of the Council of Basel, the former being the basis of the liberties of the Gallican church. In more recent European history, it is applied particularly to the ordinance of the emperor Charles VI, in 1724, settling the succession to the Austrian throne; also, to that of Charles III of Spain in 1759, granting the crown of the Two Sicilies to his third son and his descendants.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > politics > [adjective] > relating to affairs of state
pragmatical1543
pragmatic1587
society > law > [noun] > edict, decree, ordinance, or institute > royal or imperial > types of
golden bull1537
pragmatical sanction1585
pragmatic1587
pragmatic sanction1587
subscription1609
pragmatica1614
ukase1729
chrysobull1882
1587 W. Harrison Hist. Descr. Iland Brit. (new ed.) ii. i. 139/2 in Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) I When the Pragmatike sanction tooke place first in France, it was supposed that these enormities should vtterlie haue ceased.
1607 E. Grimeston tr. Gen. Inuentorie Hist. France ii. lv. 287 In the end he was so flattered by this Aeneas, & by his successor Sixtus the 4. as he renownced all the rights of the Pragmatick Sanction.
1643 W. Prynne Soveraigne Power Parl. App. 32 In this Parliament the pragmatick sanction was restored.
1699 Bp. G. Burnet Expos. 39 Articles (1700) xxxvii. 385 Pragmatick Sanctions were made in several Nations to assert their Liberty.
1710 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum II Pragmatick Sanction, is a Term in the Civil Law for a Letter written to a Corporation, or any Publick Body, by the Emperour in answer to their Request to enquire or know the Law of him.
1767 Hist. Europe in Ann. Reg. 30/1 The King then published his pragmatic sanction, or royal ordinance, for the expulsion of the Jesuits.
1792 J. Almon Anecd. Life W. Pitt (octavo ed.) I. iv. 74 Our guaranty of the pragmatic sanction was an effect of that enmity.
1848 W. K. Kelly tr. L. Blanc Hist. Ten Years II. 220 The revocation of the pragmatic act which left the youthful Isabella heiress of the Spanish crown.
1858 T. Carlyle Hist. Friedrich II of Prussia I. v. ii. 552 ‘Pragmatic Sanction’ being, in the Imperial Chancery and some others, the received title for Ordinances of a very irrevocable nature, which a sovereign makes in affairs that belong wholly to himself, or what he reckons his own rights.
1885 Encycl. Brit. XIX. 657/1 After his [sc. Charles VI's] death, the pragmatic sanction led to the War of the Austrian Succession.
1903 A. A. Tilly in Cambr. Mod. Hist. II. ix. 281 The Pragmatic Sanction (1483)..gave definite shape to the liberties of the Gallican Church.
1999 World Affairs (Nexis) 22 June 3 The Croato-Hungarian Compromise of 1868 regulating the relations between the Kingdom of Hungary, on the basis of the legal traditions of both states and the Pragmatic sanction of 1712.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > doing > activity or occupation > acting in another's business or intervention > [adjective] > officious
busy1340
pragmatical1593
officious1596
polypragmatical1597
superfluous1598
pragmaticc1612
superserviceablea1616
polypragmatic1616
stickling1642
over-officious1647
polypragmonetic1693
managinga1715
busybodied1798
busybodyish1851
pantopragmatic1860
polypragmonic1866
polypragmosynic1886
c1612 W. Strachey Hist. Trav. Virginia (1953) I. 8 Ignorance..cannot..excuse a factious and pragmatique Tonge.
1656 S. Vernon Trepan 4 Mr. Pigeon checking her pragmatick nature, still prying into the secrets of others, diswaded her all he could, but she vowed she would know.
1674 Govt. Tongue vi. §33 Common estimation puts an ill character upon pragmatic medling people.
1777 W. Robertson Hist. Amer. II. vi. 238 Cepeda..a pragmatic and aspiring lawyer, seems to have held a secret correspondence with Pizarro.
1879 F. W. Farrar Life & Work St. Paul II. ix. xl. 282 If St. Paul said Κυρίου, the marginal Θεοῦ of some pragmatic scribe might easily have obtruded itself into the text.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > expressed belief, opinion > extreme opinion, dogmatism > [adjective]
high?1535
Arctic1593
magistral1596
forward1608
confident1611
magisterial1635
pragmatic1638
high-flown1640
affirmative1650
thetical1653
positive1658
pragmatical1660
dogmatical1662
dogmatic1681
unargumentative1722
ultra1820
doctrinaire1834
cocksure1842
doctrinary1846
unevidential1853
Doctrinarian1878
pontificating1922
fundamentalist1928
hardcore1951
1638 T. Herbert Some Yeares Trav. (rev. ed.) 202 It was in vaine to chalenge the pragmatique Pagan in point of honour.
1653 R. Saunders Treat. Moles Body Man & Woman 17 in Physiognomie It signifies her to be pragmatique, proud,..and one that will domineer over her husband.
1673 B. Makin Ess. to revive Antient Educ. Gentlewomen 32 And not obey their Husbands; they will be pragmatick, and boast of their Parts and Improvements.
c1771 S. Foote Maid of Bath i. 20 She's as pragmatic and proud as the Pope.
1872 Spectator 7 Sept. 1131/1 Apparently in order to spoil by wholly irrelevant and pragmatic dogmatism a very able and useful paper.
4. Treating facts or events systematically, with reference both to their relationship in cause and effect and to the practical conclusions or lessons which they suggest, rather than to their circumstantial details. Now rare except in the specialized senses at A. 6a, A. 6b. Cf. pragmatism n. 2.
ΚΠ
1853 M. Arnold Poems (new ed.) Pref. p. xvi For the more serious kinds, for pragmatic poetry, to use an excellent expression of Polybius.
1872 W. Minto Man. Eng. Prose Lit. 599 A strong contrast to the pragmatic Cobbett was the amiable, indolent, speculative Sir James Mackintosh.
1883 P. Schaff et al. Relig. Encycl. II. 1613 The pragmatic school only looked at Christianity as a system of doctrine. It failed to look upon it as an historical development.
1904 J. London Sea-wolf xii. 119 For all his pragmatic certitude, it seemed as if he watched the play and movement of life in the hope of discovering something more about it.
1953 M. H. Abrams in D. Lodge 20th Cent. Lit. Crit. (1972) 12 The central tendency of the pragmatic critic is to conceive a poem as something made in order to effect requisite responses in its readers.
5. Dealing with matters in accordance with practical rather than theoretical considerations or general principles; aiming at what is achievable rather than ideal; matter-of-fact, practical, down-to-earth (sometimes with implications of hard-headedness, lack of principle, or self-seekingness).
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > advantage > expediency > expedience > [adjective] > pragmatic or practical
practical1605
untheoretic1809
rough and ready1849
no-nonsense1853
pragmatic1853
untranscendental1865
hard-boiled1884
pragmatical1896
1853 C. L. Brace Home Life Germany 124 A strict and pragmatic people, like the mass of the Scotch.
1884 A. M. Fairbairn in Contemp. Rev. Mar. 371 An age weary of a hard and pragmatic evangelicalism.
1923 J. S. Huxley Ess. Biologist vii. 295 Some men are pragmatic and utilitarian in regard to Truth; by others she is worshipped as fanatically as any goddess.
1967 Listener 6 July 10/2 The megalomaniac diagrams of the late eighteenth-century French neo-classical architects were made buildable by pragmatic nineteenth-century English architects.
1972 F. Fitzgerald Fire in Lake i. 22 People with an extremely pragmatic cast of mind, for whom values depend for their authority upon success.
1991 P. O'Brian Nutmeg of Consol. (1993) i. 24 You must already have met a number of callous idle self-important self-indulgent hard-hearted pragmatic brutes.
2004 Foreign Affairs Mar.–Apr. 166/1 ‘Cartesian’ logic and commitment to principles lock them [sc. the French] into fixed positions that clash with the pragmatic Anglo–American approach.
6.
a. Philosophy. Belonging or relating to philosophical pragmatism; concerned with practical consequences or values. Cf. pragmatism n. 4a.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > pragmatism > [adjective]
pragmatic1902
pragmatical1903
pragmatist1903
pragmatistic1905
1902 W. James Varieties Relig. Experience 518 This thoroughly ‘pragmatic’ view of religion has usually been taken as a matter of course by common men.
1932 C. Morris Six Theories of Mind vi. 282 The pragmatic contribution to the theory of mind.
1971 G. Petrović in R. Klibansky Contemp. Philos. IV. 393 To the uninformed the pragmatic theory of truth seems identical with that of Marx.
1996 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 9 May 35/4 According to [John] Dewey, philosophy should ‘surrender all pretension to be peculiarly concerned with ultimate reality’ and accept the pragmatic notion that ‘no theory of Reality in general, Uberhaupt, is possible or needed’.
b. Politics. Relating to the practical interpretation of political or social issues. Cf. pragmatism n. 4b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > advantage > expediency > expedience > [adjective] > pragmatic or practical > in political or social issues
pragmatic1959
1959 B. Crick Amer. Sci. of Polit. v. 85 The popular character of pragmatic realism as reformism can be seen most vividly in the literature of the era.
1976 Howard Jrnl. 15 i. 3 Taking into account an admission of guilt or willingness to compensate for damage should only be done on the grounds that it is to the advantage of society to have the offender admit his guilt or pay for the damage. This is a very pragmatic attitude.
1985 C. Seymour-Ure & J. Schoff David Low iii. 153 Low's radicalism..was tempered over the years to a pragmatic reformism.
7. Linguistics. Of or relating to pragmatics (see pragmatics n.).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > other schools of linguistics > [adjective] > pragmatics
pragmatic1935
pragmatical1939
pragmalinguistic1978
1935 B. Malinowski Coral Gardens II. iv. iv. 52 Since it is the function, the active and effective influence of a word within a given context which constitutes its meaning, let us examine such pragmatic utterances.
1964 E. A. Nida Toward Sci. Translating iii. 36 There is a steady tendency for many terms to shift within the pragmatic area from an ethical response to an esthetic one.
1993 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 38 99 Barbara Kryk studies deixis as a pragmatic universal.
B. n.† 2. A person skilled or experienced in business; a person deputed to represent another in business or negotiation, an agent; spec. a lawyer. Obsolete.
1. = pragmatic sanction n. at sense A. 1. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > [noun] > edict, decree, ordinance, or institute > royal or imperial > types of
golden bull1537
pragmatical sanction1585
pragmatic1587
pragmatic sanction1587
subscription1609
pragmatica1614
ukase1729
chrysobull1882
1587 A. Fleming et al. Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) III. Contin. 1364/2 His excessiue authoritie hath beene, and still is restreined, checked and limited by lawes and pragmatikes, both ancient and new, both in France and Spaine and other dominions.
1608 E. Grimeston tr. J. F. Le Petit Gen. Hist. Netherlands xiv. 1162 They shall inuiolably obserue..the Pragmatick made by the deceased of immortall memory, the Emperor my Lord & father..in the month of Nouember 1549. touching the vnion of the said Netherlands, without consenting to any separation thereof.
1685 Bp. S. Parker Relig. & Loyalty: 2nd Pt. i. 279 All Imperial Pragmaticks for the Alteration of the settled bounds of Provinces may be taken away forever.
1701 tr. King Charles II Will 9 Dispensing with..all Laws, Pragmatics, and Customs.
1767 Ann. Reg. 1766 Characters 11/2 There were even two pragmatics: one that ceded the possessions of the house of Austria to the Archduchess of Poland, the other that contended they were the property of Mary Theresa.
1861 J. G. Sheppard Fall of Rome vi. 286 It was a solemn occasion, and the emperor deemed it worthy of a solemn document, or ‘Pragmatic’, as it was called.
1903 A. A. Tilley in Cambr. Mod. Hist. II. ix. 281 The effect of the Concordat, the substitution of which for the Pragmatic (1576) was the only reform that the Fifth Lateran Council gave to France, was to put [etc.].
1932 E. F. Gay Facts & Factors Econ. Hist. 218 Under Charles V pragmatics and petitions in Cortes recognized the prevalence of specie exports.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > delegated authority > one having delegated or derived authority > [noun] > one who acts for another
procuratorc1300
proctor1301
attorney1347
provisora1393
assignee1419
procuracya1425
solicitorc1425
factor1445
soliciter1464
doer1465
umbothman1482
agent1523
assign1526
procurera1533
practitioner1560
proxy1585
pragmatic1593
procureur1604
pragmatitioner1607
foreign agent1646
institor1657
agent general1659
proxy-man1696
interestera1701
maat1824
1593 G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation sig. Ff v Since those busie limmes began to rowse, and besturre them, more then all the Pragmatiques in Europe.
1611 J. Speed Hist. Great Brit. ix. viii. 499/2 Pandulphus (the Popes Pragmaticke) hauing first desired safe conduct of King John, arriues at Douer.
1631 B. Jonson Staple of Newes i. v. 104 in Wks. II My man o' Law! Hee's my Attorney, and Sollicitour too! A fine pragmaticke!
1688 W. Sherlock Vindic. Some Protestant Princ. 60 I was not concerned to judge of this matter, whether De Marca or the Pragmaticks were in the right.
1762 G. Barnes tr. Cicero Compl. Orator i. 98 Those most eloquent of men, being ignorant of the law themselves, use in their causes a sort of ministerial lawyers, who are..called pragmatics.
3. An officious or meddlesome person, a busybody; a conceited person. In later use esp.: a practical or unsentimental person (cf. A. 5).
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > doing > activity or occupation > acting in another's business or intervention > [noun] > being a busybody or officiousness > a busybody
busybody1526
busyhead1555
stiffler1566
Jack-stickler1579
pragmatical1593
polypragmon1596
polypragmonist1609
polypragmist1613
factotum1618
ardelio1624
polypragmatist1631
pragmatic1634
polypragmatic1636
pragmatist1640
stickler1702
gad1756
pantopragmatic1860
butterinsky1902
eager beaver1942
1634 tr. S. Luzvic & E. Binet Devout Hart 37 Nor doth Proteus so transforme himself into euery figure, as this pragmatike of the world turnes and winds himself euery way into each slight.
1645 J. Milton Colasterion 20 These matters are not for pragmatics, and folkmooters to babble in.
1659 J. Gauden Ἱερα Δακρυα iv. xvi. 502 Such pragmaticks..labour impertinently.
1729 J. Entick Evid. Christianity xiv. 70 The Deists and Atheists and other Pragmatics endeavouring to disprove the veracity of the Pentateuch.
1835 Fraser's Mag. 12 269 The flippants and pragmatics who infest all the highways of society.
1914 Indianapolis Star 6 Jan. 8/2 Whatever the findings of investigators are on the degree of legal responsibility for the building collapse at South Bend, the case appears as a sufficient answer to those pragmatics who see no utility in rigid building laws.
1999 Times of India (Nexis) 12 Dec. Not a romantic who built castles in the air, but a pragmatic who, by sheer dint of hard work and forecast, built bridges where they were needed, without upsetting eco-harmony.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1587