purist
Americannoun
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a person who advocates the strictest application of the principles or standards in any field, or who insists on purity in language, style, etc..
When making hip-hop he began as a purist, putting most of the focus on solid lyrics and less on working with the music and production.
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Fine Arts. Often Purist a practitioner of purism, an early 20th-century style of art characterized by the use of simple geometric forms and images evoking manufactured objects.
The Purists saw their painting as the next step in the evolution of modern art after Cubism, which they found too decorative.
adjective
Other Word Forms
- hyperpurist noun
- nonpuristic adjective
- puristic adjective
- puristical adjective
- puristically adverb
- unpuristic adjective
Etymology
Origin of purist
First recorded in 1695–1705; from French puriste, equivalent to pur(e) ( def. ) + -ist ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The finer details are still unclear but if there are any special rules or conditions attached, that's unlikely to go down well with purists.
From BBC
For a purist, and drivers who want to be on the limit at all times, this is not ideal.
From BBC
Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn says while there is clearly an audience for the sport, "it's a little bit barbaric for me, I am a boxing purist".
From BBC
That's because Brookes is a snowboarder's snowboarder, a "purist's dream", who takes far more joy in shredding on a powder day than competing on the world stage.
From BBC
To the disdain of purists, so much of the Super Bowl coverage is about anything but the football.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
