purismn.
/ˈpjʊərɪz(ə)m/, /ˈpjɔːrɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /ˈpjʊˌrɪz(ə)m/ 1.
a. Scrupulous adherence to or insistence upon an ideal of purity or correctness, esp. in language or style; strict adherence to a principle or doctrine.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > elegance > [noun] > correctness
propriety1550
orthologya1620
correctness1684
purism1777
1777 F. Bottarelli New Ital., Eng. & French Pocket-dict. III. Purisme, affettazione nel parlar troppo purgato, purism.
1799 tr. I. Kant Metaphysic of Morals 7 Where can one begin to number the limitation of a large obligation with purism (pedantry with respect to the observance of duty, as to its extent)?
1804 W. Mitford Inq. Princ. Harmony Lang. (ed. 2) 392 Before we attempt to exercise on our language the spirit of what the French used to call purism.
1821 Sporting Mag. 8 236 The purism of modern times and your fastidious delicacy..would not allow me to give this story at full length.
1869 M. E. Braddon Lady's Mile 247 The strictest pureism in the ethics of costume.
1905 Athenæum 26 Aug. 269/2 The works and views of the writers on [French] grammar who upheld purism.
1989 Times Lit. Suppl. 19 May 547/2 This production carries purism to the extent of favouring the earlier of the composer's two completed versions.
2005 News & Observer (Raleigh, N. Carolina) (Nexis) 16 Sept. 41 Don't bother asking for ketchup. That's taboo in this temple of hot dog purism, along with sauerkraut, relish, mayo and cheese.
b. As a count noun. An instance of this; a scrupulously strict or correct expression or principle.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > elegance > [noun] > correctness > instance of
purism1803
1803 Edinb. Rev. 1 254 The glory of illuminating his countrymen in purisms.
1844 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 56 144 The purisms of political delinquency had little share..in any remorse which Shah Soojah might ever feel.
1886 Proc. Royal Geogr. Soc. 8 263 With all due deference to literary purists, I submit that a hybrid which conveys a distinct and definite meaning is preferable to a purism which does not.
1907 Science 27 Sept. 406 There are also several important changes in nomenclature, as where Procnias takes the place of Casmarinchos, etc., and current purisms are abandoned for the original forms of names.
1956 Eng. Jrnl. 45 256 The tests, in general, reveal less concern with ‘niceties of diction and purisms in expression’ than was the case twenty years ago.
1977 New German Critique 11 62 A purism of definition..will only mean that an essential part of historical reality is obscured from the beginning.
1996 Hist. Teacher 30 81 History, as a subject, is both too precious and in some ways too fragile to be held hostage to unyielding purisms.
2. Art. Usually with capital initial. An early 20th-cent. development of Cubism arising from a rejection of excessive ornateness and marked by a return to recognizable and basic geometric forms.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > period, movement, or school of art > late 19th and 20th centuries > [noun] > Purism
purism1931
1931 J. Rodker tr. A. Ozenfant Foundations Mod. Art p. xi I have sought to formulate those tropisms which are most clearly apprehended. On them I base the art that derives from ‘constants’. I call it ‘Purism’.
1959 Archit. Rev. 125 356/2 Jeanneret's contribution to Purism was curious. It is the work of a follower, but the pictures have greater presence than those they emulate.
1973 Times 27 Nov. 12/5 For a time in the early twenties Servranckx worked in a style known as Purism, associated with Leger and Ozenfant, of simplified brightly coloured abstractions of machine forms.
1999 Burlington Mag. Jan. 57 The selection of still-life paintings from the 1920s in the show emphasised the affinities of Gris's later work with Purism.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1777