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Pietism

[pahy-i-tiz-uhm]
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noun
  1. a movement, originating in the Lutheran Church in Germany in the 17th century, that stressed personal piety over religious formality and orthodoxy.
  2. the principles and practices of the Pietists.
  3. (lowercase) intensity of religious devotion or feeling.
  4. (lowercase) exaggeration or affectation of piety.
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Origin of Pietism

1690–1700; < German Pietismus < Latin piet(ās) piety + German -ismus -ism
Related formsPi·e·tist, nounpi·e·tis·tic, pi·e·tis·ti·cal, adjectivepi·e·tis·ti·cal·ly, adverb

Synonyms

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4. sanctimony.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

angelicbelievingblessedchastecleanconsecrateddedicateddevoteddevotionaldevoutdivinefaithfulfaultlessGod-fearinggodlikegodlygoodhallowedhumbleimmaculate

Examples from the Web for pietistic

Historical Examples

  • We can think of God's Kingdom and righteousness only in the light of the pietistic.

    The Conquest of Fear

    Basil King

  • Snoilsky was "awake," to use a pietistic expression, Bjrck was dead.

    The Growth of a Soul

    August Strindberg

  • His mind was sombre and pietistic, and his imagination bizarre and vivid.

    Old Continental Towns

    Walter M. Gallichan

  • Did not the poet Young exclaim, in one of his most pietistic "Night Thoughts,"

    Seeing and Hearing

    George W. E. Russell

  • But I was never able to observe that it produced any pietistic tone in number 94.

    Immortal Youth

    Lucien Price

British Dictionary definitions for pietistic

pietism

noun
  1. a less common word for piety
  2. excessive, exaggerated, or affected piety or saintliness
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Derived Formspietist, nounpietistic or pietistical, adjective

Pietism

noun
  1. history a reform movement in the German Lutheran Churches during the 17th and 18th centuries that strove to renew the devotional ideal
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Derived FormsPietist, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for pietistic

adj.

1804, from pietist + -ic. Related: Pietistical.

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pietism

n.

also Pietism, 1690s, from German Pietismus, originally applied in derision to the movement to revive personal piety in the Lutheran Church, begun in Frankfurt c.1670 by Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705). See piety + -ism.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper