purist

American  

[pyoor-ist] / ˈpyʊər ɪst /

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. 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.

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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 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

It's now seen as second fiddle to the track and road, but it's the purist form of distance running for me.

From BBC

"Who even are these boxing purists?" he jokes.

From BBC

Seasonal purists could just download the dozen or so Christmas episodes of this long-running and still-exceptional drama about a group of midwives working out of a convent in London’s East End.

From Los Angeles Times

“The purists, they get cranky about this, you know, and say that it’s supposed to be gin and vermouth and that’s all a martini should be.”

From Salon

At every stop, Paul was a basketball purist’s dream.

From The Wall Street Journal