Dictionary

pragma en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈpɹæɡmə/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Ancient Greek πρᾶγμα (prâgma, “a thing done, a fact”). In the technical senses perhaps a back-formation from pragmatic or a clipping of pragmat used earlier in ALGOL.

Meanings

1. A compiler directive; data embedded in source code by programmers to indicate some intention to a compiler.
   • This pragma stops the compiler from generating those warnings we don't care about.
   • […]users may also want to disable functionality such as function inlining via either a compiler command line option or compiler pragma, depending on the build tools system and functionality supported. 2012, Robert Oshana, DSP for Embedded and Real-Time Systems, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 218:
2. (Internet) In early versions of HTTP, a general header that specifies some implementation-specific directive, to any recipient, and may specify that the HTTP response should not be cached.
   • It is not possible to specify a pragma for a specific recipient; however, any pragma directive not relevant to a recipient should be ignored by that recipient. 1996 May 14, T. Berners-Lee, R. Fielding, H. Frystyk, “Hypertext Transfer Protocol — HTTP/1.0”, in RFC Editor, →ISSN, RFC 1945:
3. (uncommon) A practical thing or action, as opposed to theory or belief (dogma).
   • "If it is practical, a pragma, it is a thing and not a theory." 1961 April 14, R. A. Lafferty, “All the People”, in Galaxy Science Fiction:
   • Other speakers railed against “neo-liberal dogma”; but a dogma is a belief that you hold regardless of evidence. No one comes to economic liberalism through dogma. In theory, a planned economy might work better than one left to arrange itself; in practice, it never does. Classical liberalism, far from being a dogma, is a pragma. 2023 May 20, Daniel Hannan, “The Conservative coalition is falling apart. Too many Tories have given up on freedom”, in The Telegraph, →ISSN:
   • At any given minute, we must choose between habitual action and thoughtful action, between Dogma and Pragma. 1939, Jacques Barzun, Of Human Freedom, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, page 129:

Forms

Synonyms

pragmat