puritanical en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- (General-American) audio
- /pjɚ.ɪˈtæn.ɪ.kl̩/ (US)
- /pjʊəɹ.ɪˈtæn.ɪ.kəl/ (UK)
Etymology
From puritanic + -al.
Meanings
-
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.
1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 192:
-
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.
1901 August – 1902 April, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “First Report of Dr. Watson”, in The Hound of the Baskervilles: Another Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, London: George Newnes, […], published 1902, →OCLC, page 168: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.
1910, James George Frazer, Totemism and Exogamy, volume 1, page xiv:American society has a double standard when it comes to sexuality. We have a puritanical taboo against talking about sexuality directly, yet we are fine with the sexual images that pervade television and glossy magazines.
2014 May 21, Rey Junco, “What’s the big deal about sexting?”, in CNN:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| more puritanical | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most puritanical | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| Puritanical | alternative | lexicographic |
Deriveds
antipuritanical · puritanicalness · neopuritanical · puritanically · unpuritanical
Translations (9)
ru стро́гий (precise in observance of legal or religious requirements) · de puritanisch (of or pertaining to the Puritans) · gl meticuloso (precise in observance of legal or religious requirements) · gl puritano (precise in observance of legal or religious requirements) · pl purytański (precise in observance of legal or religious requirements) · ru пурита́нский (of or pertaining to the Puritans) · ru пурита́нский (precise in observance of legal or religious requirements) · gl puritano (of or pertaining to the Puritans) · pl purytański (of or pertaining to the Puritans)