pragmaticaladj.n.

1590 W. Clever Flower of Phisicke 94 A short necked man, is apt to conceiue, pregmaticall.

1601 F. Godwin Catal. Bishops of Eng. 427 A man of a very pragmaticall and stirring humour.

1612 T. Taylor Αρχὴν Ἁπάντων: Comm. Epist. Paul to Titus (i. 16) 320 He will cling to good mens companie; be pragmaticall and busie in performing many sightly duties.

1661 R. Boyle Some Consider. Style of Script. (1675) 212 None of these pragmatical persons..will suffer himself to be so enslaved to his business, but he will allow himself set times..for eating.

1603 P. Holland tr. Plutarch Morals 369 Put their causes into the hands of pragmaticall lawyers (at Rome) with no lesse shame and ignominie, than losse and damage.

1656 T. Blount Glossographia Pragmatical, that is expert in doing things, practised in the Law, and in many matters.

1665 D. Lloyd State Worthies (1677) ii. 85 So pragmatical a person as this gentleman was necessary among the Custom-house men.

1822 R. Heber in Whole Wks. Jeremy Taylor I. p. ccciii Political and pragmatical wisdom.

1837 W. Irving Adventures Capt. Bonneville III. 122 These veterans of the wilderness are exceedingly pragmatical on points of venery and woodcraft.

1593 R. Bancroft Suruay Holy Discipline ii. 33 They would no longer endure to be so ouer-looked and hampered, in their owne free Cittie, by such a pragmaticall and intermedlinge Discipline.

1615 Bp. J. Hall Imprese of God ii, in Recoll. Treat. 667 The absurd pragmaticall impudency of the present [Pope], in that grosse prohibition of a fauourable and natural oth, for his Ma^ties. security.

1656 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. II. viii. 93 A wise man is not pragmaticall; for he declines the doing of any thing that is beyond his office.

c1660 R. Carpenter (title) The Pragmatical Jesuit.

1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. (at cited word) A pert low townsman; a pragmatical trader.

1794 W. Godwin Caleb Williams I. iv. 78 Coming to-day in this pragmatical way when nobody sent for you.

1829 W. Scott Anne of Geierstein I. xiii. 14 How he dealt with the villains of Liege, when they would needs be pragmatical.

a1855 C. Brontë Professor (1857) I. vi. 88 It is like you to give a pragmatical opinion without being acquainted with any of the circumstances of the case.

1660 H. More Explan. Grand Myst. Godliness iv. xiii. 131 The leguleious Cavils of some Pragmatical Pettifoggers.

1668 J. Glanvill Blow at Mod. Sadducism Pref. sig. A2 With a pert and pragmatical Insolence, they censure all.

1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 481. ¶4 Lacqueys were never so saucy and pragmatical, as they are now-a-days.

1724 J. Swift Let. to Molesworth 2 Which..may perhaps give me the Title of Pragmatical and Overweening.

1779 F. Burney Let. 25 Oct.–3 Nov. in Early Jrnls. & Lett. (1994) 407 His extreme pomposity,—the solemn stiffness of his Person..& the quaint importance of his delivery,—are..like some Pragmatical..old Coxcomb represented on the stage.

1834 E. Bulwer-Lytton Last Days of Pompeii I. i. ii. 12 The Romans lose both by this pragmatical affectation of refinement.

1862 J. H. Burton Book-hunter (1863) 235 The pragmatical priggism which is the pedagogue's characteristic defect.

1885 Dict. National Biogr. I. 143/2 Blackwell is universally represented as meddlesome, pragmatical, and loquacious, and the theory that his plot was wholly concocted by himself would appear the most plausible.

1928 A. P. Herbert Trials of Topsy 133 All this pragmatical yap about tea being a necessity and beer being a vice.

1979 P. O'Brian Fortune of War viii. 272 The moment you are afloat you become pragmatical and absolute, a bashaw..—no longer a social being at all.

2002 Times Higher Educ. Suppl. (Nexis) 8 Mar. 28 Stanley Fish's persona struts his all-knowing pragmatical last word.

1597 Bp. J. King Lect. Ionas xii. 158 But this knowledge of theirs was not a curious and idle knowledg,..but a pragmaticall knowledge, full of labour and busines.

a1620 M. Fotherby Atheomastix (1622) Pref. sig. B4 No better, then a kinde of pragmaticall Atheists.

1704 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I Pragmatical..in Physicks, or Natural Philosophy,..is some~times used in a good Signification, and signifies the same as Practical, Mechanical, or Problematical. Thus Stevinus..calls some Mechanical and Practical Experiments..by the Name of Pragmatical Examples.

1865 tr. D. F. Strauss New Life Jesus I. i. i. 4 The significance of Christ in relation to modern times could only be substantiated..by treating his life as a pragmatical sequence of events on the same footing as that of other illustrious men.

1906 Hibbert Jrnl. Apr. 647 There is the practical or pragmatical form of Christianity usually associated with the name of James.

1976 E. Crankshaw Shadow of Winter Palace (1978) xi. 229 The sort of pragmatical and level-headed guide whom the generations of revolutionaries to come so sorely lacked.

2001 Turkish Daily News (Nexis) 1 Nov. New forms of Islam are arising which are partly shaped by the norms and values of the western societies and are looking for pragmatical solutions to combine Islamic values with the given circumstances.

1864 Webster's Amer. Dict. Eng. Lang. (at cited word) [Quoting Hare] Low, pragmatical, earthly views of the gospel.

1886 Athenæum 14 Aug. 203/3 ‘In One Town’, though a little pragmatical and matter of fact, is not uninteresting. It..confines itself entirely to the commonplace joys and mishaps of every-day men and women.

1896 Dict. National Biogr. XLV. 149/2 There was, indeed, something dour and almost pragmatical about Phelps's own nature that may account for his success.

1910 J. Buchan Prester John vii. 138 Ay, you may look surprised at me, you two pragmatical Scotsmen.

2001 Express (Nexis) 6 Oct. 117 He is..conservative, sensible, understated and pragmatical.