purist

[ pyoor-ist ]

noun

1. 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.

2. Often Purist. Fine Arts. 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

1. relating to or being a purist:

   The purist view of theater design is that if there is a column or pillar anywhere, there is a problem.

Other Words From

• pu·ris·tic [py, oo, uh, -, rees, -tik], pu·ris·ti·cal adjective
• pu·ris·ti·cal·ly adverb
• hy·per·pur·ist noun adjective
• non·pu·ris·tic adjective
• un·pu·ris·tic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of purist¹

First recorded in 1695–1705; from French puriste, equivalent to pur(e) ( def ) + -ist ( def )

Example Sentences

This tension — between Roth’s love of visual flash and the brothers’ purist musical approach — yielded major dividends.

From Los Angeles Times

“I’m a country music purist,” she says.

From Los Angeles Times

Two unbeaten champions with differing but equally effective styles produced a match-up of the highest level in a fight to make the boxing purist salivate.

From BBC

“I’m not a purist when it comes to plants. I like to refer to them as climate-appropriate. But the more blacktops we can eliminate and the less stormwater runoff there is, the better our water quality and lives will be.”

From Los Angeles Times

“We see the rich tradition of national conservative thought as an intellectually serious alternative to the excesses of purist libertarianism, and in stark opposition to political theories grounded in race,” the website reads.

From Salon