*Pronunciation:*  Brit. pjʊə , pjɔː , U.S. pjʊ(ə)r

Forms:*  ME *perrour (comparative, transmission error), ME peure, ME poere, ME por (south-west midl.), ME pore, ME poure, ME powre, ME puȝr, ME puir, ME puire, ME pur, ME puyr, ME puyre, ME–15 peur, ME–15 pewre, ME–15 (18– in sense C. 6) puer, ME– pure, 15–16 pewr, 16 pvre, 18 pewer (in sense C. 6); Eng. regional (Cornwall) 18– pewer, 18– puer, 18– pur; U.S. regional (chiefly south Midland and south.) 18– puore, 19– pyo’ (chiefly in African-American usage), 19– pyore; Sc. pre-17 peure, pre-17 poore, pre-17 poure, pre-17 power, pre-17 puir, pre-17 puire, pre-17 pur, pre-17 purre, pre-17 puyr, pre-17 puyre, pre-17 pwre, pre-17 17– pure. N.E.D. (1909) also records a form lME pewr.

*Etymology:*  < Anglo-Norman peur, pure, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French pur (French pur; feminine pure) (adjective) unmixed (c/1000 as /pura, feminine, used figuratively with reference to faith), unstained, chaste (c/1135), sole, mere, simple (/c/1170), without aesthetic fault (/c/1176), real, genuine (second quarter of the 13th cent.), independent, unconditional (late 13th cent. in Anglo-Norman), complete, entire (/c/1292 or earlier in Anglo-Norman), (adverb) completely (/c/1292 or earlier in Anglo-Norman), (noun) person or thing that is not mixed (/c/1170), person or thing that has no faults (/c/1174) and its etymon classical Latin /pūrus clean, unmixed, unadulterated, (of celestial objects) clear, (of the voice) clear, taken by itself, complete, genuine, morally undefiled, chaste, ritually clean, unconditional, absolute < the same Indo-European base as Sanskrit pū- to purify, and perhaps also Old High German fouwen to sift (also fewen; Middle High German vewen). Compare Old Occitan pur (second half of the 11th cent.; Occitan pur), Catalan pur (late 13th cent.), Spanish puro (early 13th cent.), Portuguese puro (13th cent.), Italian puro (12th cent.); also ( < Latin, in some cases partly via French) Dutch puur, pure (Dutch puur), Middle Low German pūr, Middle High German pūr (German pur), Old Swedish pur (Swedish pur), Early Irish púr (Irish †/púr/), Welsh pur (13th cent.).

Apparently attested earlier as a surname: Aluredus Pur (1178), although it is unclear whether this is to be interpreted as reflecting currency of the Anglo-Norman or the Middle English word.

 

It is possible that the Middle English forms por , pore could in some instances instead show poor adj.

 

With pure (and perpetual) alms at sense A. 2b compare post-classical Latin eleemosyna pura , also eleemosyna pura et perpetua (from 12th cent. in British sources; also in continental sources), Anglo-Norman pure et perpetuele almoigne (late 13th cent.).

 

In pure widowhood at sense A. 2c after post-classical Latin pura viduitas pure widowhood (from c/1315 British source), Anglo-Norman /pure vedveté (late 13th cent.).

 

In sense A. 2f after ancient Greek καθαρός pure (see catharsis n.), in Hellenistic Greek also ‘preceded by a vowel’.

 

With pure and simple at sense A. 3c compare French pur et simple (see pur et simple adj.).

 

With sense A. 8c compare earlier purely adj.

 

With sense C. 3 compare earlier pured n., purray n.

 

With sense C. 6 compare pure v. 3.

 *A.* adj.

 *I.* In physical senses.

 *1.*

 

 *a.* Not mixed or adulterated; clean, clear, refined; spec.  /(a)/ not mixed with any other substance or material; free from admixture or adulteration; unmixed, unalloyed (often qualifying names of colours; see also sense B. 2);  /(b)/ free from contamination or physical impurity; not mixed with anything that corrupts or impairs; untainted, clean;  /(c)/ visibly or optically clear; spotless, stainless (in quots. 1481, 1652: transparent).The quotations here represent a range of uses within these senses, often with no clear lines of division, and some unite more than one shade of meaning.

c/1300   /St. John Evangelist (Laud) 272 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 410 (MED),   So clene gold ne so puyr huy ne seiȝen neuere with eiȝen.

a/1325   /St. Brendan (Corpus Cambr.) 314 in C. D’Evelyn & A. J. Mill S. Eng. Legendary (1956)    Calis and crues [/read/ cruets], pur cler cristal.

c/1350  (▸a1333)    William of Shoreham /Poems (1902) 29 (MED),   Of pure wete hyt [/sc./ the sacrament] mot be, And eke of pure wyne.

▸/a/1398   J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 153,   To make put watir clene and pure.

c/1400  (▸?c1380)    /Pearl 227   So watz hit clene and cler and pure, Þat precios perle þer hit watz pyȝt.

1481   Myrrour of Worlde (Caxton) iii. vi. 140   The mone is not so pure that the sonne may shyne..thurgh her as thurgh an other sterre.

a/1525  (▸c1448)    R. Holland /Bk. Howlat l. 369 in W. A. Craigie Asloan MS (1925) II. 106   Of pure gold was ye ground.

1590   Spenser Faerie Queene ii. vii. sig. S3,   At the well head the purest streames arise.

1638   F. Junius Painting of Ancients 42   To have his minde..like unto a pure, bright looking-glasse.

1652   J. Gaule Πυς-μαντια 7   One reads them with the pure glass of Gods word? the other by his own false and fallacious perspicils.

1751   T. Gray Elegy xiv. 8   Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear.

1785   W. Cowper Task ii. 508   To filter off a crystal draught Pure from the lees.

1797   Encycl. Brit. XVI. 33/1   There can be but one proper species of red;..all other shades being adulterations of that pure colour, with yellow, brown, &c.

1800   tr. E. J. B. Bouillon-Lagrange Man. Course Chem. II. 308   If alcohol be re-distilled, and reduced to two-thirds, you will obtain it very pure. This is what is called Rectified Alcohol.

1804   J. Grahame Sabbath 4   The morning air pure from the city’s smoke.

1839   A. Ure Dict. Arts 414   A mixture of prussian blue and cochineal pink..in preference to a pure blue.

1853   W. Gregory Inorg. Chem. (ed. 3) 74   In consequence of the great solvent power of water, it is never found pure in nature.

1860   J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xxv. 187   The snow was of the purest white.

1922   T. M. Lowry Inorg. Chem. xliii. 857 (note)    The number of carats shows the proportion of pure gold in 24 parts, 24 carat gold being the pure metal.

1987   R. Carver Elephant (1988) 114   The air was pure and invigorating.

1995   L. Garrett Coming Plague x. 276   Once it reached Newark, a two-pound bag of pure heroin might be ‘cut’..with some other chemical.

2003   S. Brown Free Gift Inside! 29   Real food, pure water, fresh air, natural cosmetics, organic farming..are the order of the day.

 

†*b.* Intact, unbroken, perfect, entire. Obs. rare.

1607   E. Topsell Hist. Fovre-footed Beastes 716   Twenty of these hornes pure, and so many broken.

 

 *c.* Of sound: not discordant or harsh, perfectly in tune, clear and even in tone; (Music and Acoustics) produced by a vibration of a single frequency, with no overtones or harmonics; chiefly in pure tone (cf. simple tone n. at simple adj. 14b(e)).

a/1791   F. Hopkinson /Misc. Ess. & Occas. Writings (1792) I. 289   A substance..sufficiently elastic for the purpose..shall draw a full and pure tone from the string [of a harpsichord].

1845   E. Holmes Life Mozart 104   She has a beautiful voice—neither strong nor weak, but very pure and good in the intonation.

1870   Nature 3 Mar. 458/2   This interval should, therefore, give no beats, and an impure octave be as harmonious as a pure one.

1889   J. Lecky in G. Grove Dict. Music IV. 70/2   If..all the consonant intervals are made perfectly smooth and pure, so as to give no beats, the tuning is then called Just Intonation.

1902   Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 751/2   Considerable difference of opinion exists as to whether beats can blend so as to give a sensation of tone; but König, by using very pure tones of high pitch, appears to have settled the question.

1961   Lancet 22 July 197/2   Pure-tone audiometry is only one item in a whole range of tests that are needed to build up a complete picture of the condition of a patient who has a hearing-loss.

1976   L. H. Schaudinischky Sound, Man & Building i. 30   The beat grows progressively lower and vanishes altogether when /f/₁ = /f/₂. This gives rise to a method of extremely accurately determining the unknown frequency of a pure tone.

2005   Independent (Nexis) 12 Aug. (Features) 5   What you often get with these northern orchestras is a weighty, pure bass sound.

 

 *d.* Of a group of plants, esp. trees: consisting of only one species.

1889   W. Schlich Man. Forestry I. ii. iii. 177   Such woods may be composed of one species only, or they may contain a mixture of two or more species; in the former case they are called ‘pure woods’, and in the latter ‘mixed woods’.

1902   J. C. Gifford Pract. Forestry viii. 198   In Europe.., where large quantities of spruce are raised for this purpose, it grows in dense, pure stands.

1948   Misc. Publ. Univ. Michigan Mus. Zool. 68 16   The creosote bush, usually in pure stands, covers great expanses of the broad desert basins.

1991   Forestry 64 360   The sampling strategy was aimed at pure crops of Sitka spruce in eastern and southern Scotland.

 *II.* In non-physical or extended senses.

 *2.*

 

 *a.* Free from anything not properly belonging to it; without any added, extraneous, or unnecessary elements; simple, homogeneous, unmixed, unadulterated (sometimes merging with sense A. 6). pure naturals: see natural n.¹ 3a.

c/1300   /St. Thomas Becket (Laud) 451 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 119 (MED),   Euere þe herre heore ordre is, me þinchez bi puyr [/a/1325 Corpus Cambr. pur] lawe þe strengore scholde heore dom beo.

c/1325  (▸c1300)    /Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) 9724 (MED),   Me ssolde him uerst desordeini & suþþe, þoru pur lawe & þoru Iugement of þe lond, honge him.

c/1450  (▸c1378)    Langland /Piers Plowman (Rawl.) B. xiii. 166 (MED),   Þere nys neyther..Pope ne patriarch þat puyre reson ne schal make Þe meyster of alle þo men.

1508   Golagros & Gawane sig. bv^v,   For pure sorow of that sight thai sighit vnsound.

1614   S. Purchas Pilgrimage (ed. 2) i. ix. 47   In the time of Elisa or Dido, the Phænicean or Punike, which she carried into Africa, was pure Hebrew, as were also their letters.

1642   R. Burney Answer Observ. v. 23   ‘Tis Adams pure naturalls, impure nature that makes a Subject covet to be a King.

1724   A. Collins Disc. Grounds Christian Relig. 81   The Sadducees profess’d to follow the pure text of Scripture, or to interpret it according to the literal sense.

1864   F. C. Bowen Logic (1870) vi. 148,   I know at once, or by Immediate Inference,—that is, by an act of Pure Thought.

1882   G. M. Minchin Uniplanar Kinematics 130   The strain at a point is said to be pure strain if the principal axes (axes of the strain ellipse) are not rotated by the strain.

1912   D. C. Macintosh Probl. Knowl. i. 63   The innocent enough looking ‘dualistic’ doctrine that all true knowledge is the elaboration of pure experience by thought.

1942   G. M. Trevelyan Eng. Social Hist. xi. 363   The foundation of hospitals and the improvement of medical service and infant welfare were pure gain.

2004   Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Oct. 15/4   Osama bin Laden rejects..the entire history of interpretation of the Qur’an..in order to return to the unadulterated, original wording, pure, naked scripture.

 

 *b.* Law. Without any condition attached; absolute, unconditional. Freq. in pure (and perpetual) alms (cf. frankalmoign n., perpetual alms n. at perpetual adj., adv., and n. Special uses). Now hist.

▸/a/1393   Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) Prol. 742 (MED),   The richesse Which to Silvestre in pure almesse The ferste Constantinus lefte, Fro holy cherche thei berefte.

1438   in J. Robertson Illustr. Topogr. & Antiq. Aberdeen & Banff (1857) III. 265   For quhy that I..has..confermyt a charter of pur sellyng of my landys.

a/1475   in A. Clark /Eng. Reg. Godstow Nunnery (1911) i. 34 (MED),   Huge, Abbot of Abendon..grauntyd to the Mynchons of Godstow..in-to pur & perpetual almys, fowre burdyns of thornys.

1584   Burgh Court Perth 4 May   Sufficient charter of puir venditioun contenyng clausis of warrandice.

c/1626   H. Bisset /Rolment Courtis (1922) II. 31   In puir and perpetuall almouse.

1713   Act 13 Anne c. 6 §8   To have and to hold the said Canonship or Prebend to the said Colwell Brickenden..and his Successors..in pure and perpetual Alms.

1818   H. T. Colebrooke Treat. Obligations & Contracts 151   [If] one be conditional or deferred for a term, while the other is a pure and simple engagement.

1880   J. Muirhead tr. Gaius Institutes ii. 159   Sabinus and Cassius think that a conditional legacy to him is valid, but not a pure one.

1997   J. Hudson Land, Law & Lordship in Anglo-Norman Eng. 191   Ralph Carbunel gave the canons of Easby two carucates to hold of him and his heirs in pure and perpetual alms.

 

 *c.* Law. Chiefly in pure widowhood. Designating the status of a widow who has not remarried and is regarded as an independent legal personality, able to hold and dispose of property, land, etc., in her own right. Now hist.

1427   in W. Fraser Melvilles & Leslies (1890) III. 21   Condicyonys..quhilkis scho is bundyne..to fulfile in hir pur wyduyte.

1448   in B. Sundby Stud. Middle Eng. Dial. Material Worcs. Rec. (1963) 256 (MED),   Ef..the seid Jahne ouer luve the seid Thomas Corbet, then the seid Jahne in hure pure weduhod shal relese..alle hure right and titel.

a/1475   in A. Clark /Eng. Reg. Godstow Nunnery (1911) i. 147 (MED),   Agnes þe wyfe sumtyme of Iohn perschore..beyng in pure wydewhode..grauntyd..to þe religiouse women..alle here ryȝht..in oon Mese.

1624   in J. Robertson Illustr. Topogr. & Antiq. Aberdeen & Banff (1862) IV. 256   The pretendit chartour… Dame Issobell is alledgit in hir puire vidowitie to have gevin.

1666   W. Dugdale Origines Juridiciales xiii. 28,   I have seen an original deed..by Alice the daughter of William de Wrottesle..in her pure Widowhood, of all that land which her father gave in frank marriage with her.

1731   Magna Britannia VI. 413/1   She survived Baldwin, and in her pure Widowhood gave to the Canons of Bolton..her Mills at this Place.

1991   Past & Present May 30   There are two particularly interesting features of this transaction. The first concerns the issue of ‘pure widowhood’. In theory a widow was entitled to freebench rights only during her ‘pure’ (that is, un-remarried) widowhood.

 

 *d.* In reference to breeding or lineage: of unmixed origin or descent; pure-blooded, pure-bred.Originally of persons; now often of domesticated animals.

1569   R. Grafton Chron. II. 286   To people the towne with pure Englishe men.

a/1675   J. Lightfoot /Wks. (1684) II. 799   In Persia there are very many not of pure blood, and a few that are pure.

1729   E. Fenton Observ. Waller’s Poems in E. Waller Wks. p. xix/2,   Her blood is kept pure, by often alliance with great and Princely families.

1836   in H. Strang Pioneers in Canada (1935) 80   Thomas Hassel, a pure Indian, who had been educated at Red River, and engaged by me as an interpreter.

1854   J. H. Newman Lect. Hist. Turks i. ii. 28,   I consider Attila to have been a pure Hun.

1866   G. MacDonald Ann. Quiet Neighbourhood xxvii,   That horse..is very nearly a pure Arab.

1983   K. Hulme Bone People 64   My father’s father was English so I’m not yer 100% pure. But I’m Maori. And that’s the way I feel too.

2002   J. Cunliffe Encycl. Dog Breeds 190/2   [The modern English setter was] greatly influenced by Edward Laverack who acquired two pure English setters in 1825 and began his breeding programme.

 

 *e.* Of a subject of study or practice: restricted to the essential matter; not concerned with related subjects or topics; spec. dealing with the theory or abstract understanding of a subject as distinct from its practical application (cf. pure mathematics n.); freq. opposed to applied adj. 3a, mixed adj.² 5. Also: designating a student or practitioner of the theory or essentials of a subject or sphere of activity; (of music, painting, poetry, etc.) designating a work or form considered absolute, essential, or abstract, rather than representational, didactic, or commercial; (hence) of or relating to an artist whose work is of this type.

1605   Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. sig. Hh3,   The mathematicks are either pure, or mixt… Mixt hath for subiect some Axiomes or parts of Naturall Philosop[h]ie.

1648   Bp. J. Wilkins Math. Magick i. ii. 12   Mathematicks..is usually divided into pure and mixed.

1750   Johnson Rambler No. 14. ⁋5   The difference between pure science, which has to do only with ideas, and the application of its laws to the use of life.

1858   R. G. Mayne Expos. Lexicon Med. Sci. (1860) 1045/2   In England..the profession is ostensibly divided into three distinct branches, viz. pure physicians, or those who profess to act only in medical cases; pure surgeons, or those who practise surgery alone; and surgeon-apothecaries, or general practitioners.

1883   Encycl. Brit. XV. 752/2   Pure Mechanism, or Applied Kinematics: being the theory of machines considered simply as modifying motion.

1903   Carnegie Inst. Yearbk. 1902 27   The applications of pure physics and pure chemistry from the minutest parts of the earth to the mass of the earth as a whole.

1924   Econ. Jrnl. 34 346   Meanwhile I got a good deal interested in the semi-mathematical side of pure Economics.

1941   ‘G. Orwell’ in Listener 29 May 768/1   James Joyce, was..about as near to being a ‘pure’ artist as a writer can be.

1955   Times 9 May 5/1   The exhibition would attract considerable attention and must help to break down the barrier which existed between commercial and pure art.

1978   P. Griffiths Conc. Hist. Mod. Music iv. 47   His [/sc./ Debussy’s] creative energies were directed..into works of pure music.

2002   Guardian (Nexis) 29 July (Media) 2   The pure economist would say free trade is good whether or not you have reciprocity.

 

†*f.* Linguistics.  /(a)/ In ancient Greek: (of a stem) ending in a vowel; (of an ending) following a vowel.  /(b)/ In Arabic, etc.: (of a syllable) ending in a vowel, open. Obs.

1650   E. Reeve Introd. Greeke Tongue 24   Nounes ending in δα, θα, ρα, or pure α, do make the Genitive in ας.

1650   E. Reeve Introd. Greeke Tongue 24   Adjectives in ις, having ος not pure [e.g. εύπατρις, ευπάτριδος].

1776   J. Richardson Gram. Arabick Lang. v. 14   [Syllables] are divided into pure and mixed; the pure consisting only of one consonant and one vowel,..the mixed of two consonants joined by a vowel.

1818   E. V. Blomfield tr. A. H. Matthiæ Greek Gram. I. 218   Verbs pure, whose final syllable -ω is preceded by a diphthong.

1870   E. Abbott tr. Curtius Elucid. Student’s Gr. Gram. i. vi. 57   In the formation of the acc. sing. of Masc. and Fem., the true vowel-nature of the stem declares itself, πόλι-ν, πολύ-ν; and the voc. sing…contains the pure vowel stem.

 

 *g.* Logic. Designating or relating to a predicate which is affirmed or denied of the subject without a qualification (opposed to modal adj. 1); (of a syllogism) containing such a proposition as its premise. Now hist.

[1654   Z. Coke Logick 114   Propositions of the manner necessary are converted so as the pure simply, when they are universal negatives.]

1697   tr. F. Burgersdijck Monitio Logica i. xxviii. 112   A Pure Enunciation is [L. /Enunciatio pura est/] that in which it is not express’d how the Parts cohere… Modal, in which it is.

1697   tr. F. Burgersdijck Monitio Logica ii. xiv. 60   A Pure [Syllogism] is that which consists of Propositions pure… Modal either of one or both Modal.

1725   I. Watts Logick ii. ii. §4   When a proposition merely expresses that the predicate is connected with the subject, it is called a pure proposition; as, every true christian is an honest man: But when it includes also the way and manner wherein the predicate is connected with the subject, it is called a modal proposition; as, when I say, it is necessary that a true christian should be an honest man.

1827   R. Whately Elements Logic (ed. 2) iii. ii. 106   A Modal Proposition may be stated as a pure one, by attaching the Mode to one of the Terms.

1870   W. S. Jevons Elem. Lessons Logic vii. 69   It has long been usual to distinguish propositions as they are pure or modal.

1993   R. B. Marcus Modalities 56   The early taxonomy of preformal logic distinguished between pure and modal propositions.

 

 *h.* orig. Econ. Of a surplus or deficit, esp. of money: remaining after all deductions; reckoned independently of other gains, losses, or holdings. Freq. in pure profit, pure earnings.

1749   T. W. Brit. Sleepers II. 57   The Things being exported being more than we can consume, in respect to our Necessities, they are superfluous, and their whole Produce is a pure Profit.

1799   W. Tooke View Russ. Empire II. 537   If we deduct from this the waste in the coinage, the wages of workmen, and the expence of transport, the remainder is pure profit.

1887   Polit Sci. Q. 2 606   In selling the product for more than this sum total lies the employer’s chance of ultimate gain. Pure profit is the return of simple ownership.

1903   C. F. Bastable Public Finance IV. iv. 472   The aim of taxing permanent incomes at a higher rate is accomplished by a tax that does not touch pure earnings.

1964   Jrnl. Finance 19 27   We can now define pure earnings as earnings minus implicit interest, and pure earnings then account for all capital costs.

1992   Observer 2 Feb. 28/4   Soundings from managing agents..indicate that ‘pure’ losses in 1990 will amount to just £390 million.

 

 *i.* Phonetics. Of a vowel: not joined with another to form a diphthong.

1922   Mod. Philol. 20 273   This slow changing movement renders the production of a pure vowel impossible.

1932   D. Jones Outl. Eng. Phonetics (ed. 3) xiv. 63   The term ‘pure’ vowel is used in this book to designate a vowel (during which the organs of speech remain approximately stationary) in contradistinction to a diphthong (during which the organs of speech perform a clearly perceptible movement).

1960   Amer. Jrnl. Philol. 81 210   High frequency of ‘pure vowels’ in initial position..is by no means a general distributional property of all languages.

1996   R. L. Trask Dict. Phonetics & Phonol. 202   A form of monophthongization in which a diphthong is reduced to a pure vowel lying phonetically about halfway between the start point and end point of the original diphthong.

 

 *j.* Med. and Psychol. Of a disease or condition: uncomplicated by any other disease or pathological process. Also (of a patient): suffering from such a disease or condition.

1771   J. Hill Managem. Gout (ed. 8) ii. 11   The celebrated Englishman who establishes this distinction..supposes the hereditary taint may often be a mixture of scurvy, pox, and stone; as well as a pure gout.

1812   Edinb. Med. & Surg. Rev. 8 365   The frequent paroxysms of difficulty of breathing, not usual in pure phthisis.

1859   J. Bigelow Nature in Dis. (ed. 2) i. 22   Also if inflammatory, or other morbid affections, supervene upon the pure disease, they may become subjects for medical treatment.

1900   Lancet 8 Dec. 1633/2   It is very remarkable..how very rarely in the course of a case of pure tuberculosis this sign appears.

1945   Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 58 283   Twenty were chosen that represented the ‘pure’ form of maternal overprotection, of which Dr. Levy distinguishes five varieties in all; pure, compensatory for rejection-impulses, mixed pure-and-compensatory, mild, and non-material.

1967   Canad. Med. Assoc. Jrnl. 7 Oct. (Abstracts) 8/2   It is most unlikely that normal feminization at puberty will occur, and testicular removal at any age is generally indicated as in the case of pure gonadal dysgenesis already mentioned.

1976   Amer. Jrnl. Psychiatry. 133 2/1   Atypical manic patients, such as schizo-affective patients, do not respond so well to lithium therapy as do ‘pure’ depressive patients.

2002   BusinessWeek 5 Aug. 117/1   An anemia drug..attracted scrutiny after being linked to 141 cases of pure red-cell aplasia, a life-threatening anemia.

 *3.* Chiefly attrib.

 

†*a.* That is the thing itself, not something else; true, real, genuine; very. Obs.

c/1300   /St. Michael (Laud) 555 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 315   Man schal in puyr somer selde þondre i-huyre, For þer is þanne selde wete to maken quenchingue of fuyre.; Ne in puyr winter no-þe-mo, for þanne nis non hete.

c/1325  (▸c1300)    /Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) 2308   He..sede he was purost [/v.r./ purest; a/1400 /Trin. Cambr. puirest] eyr to be icrouned to kinge.

▸/c/1385   Chaucer Knight’s Tale 1279   The pure fettres of his shynes grete Were of his bittre salte teres wete.

c/1400  (▸?c1380)    /Cleanness (1920) 704 (MED),   Wel nyȝe pure paradys moȝt preve no better.

c/1425  (▸c1400)    /Laud Troy-bk. 6656 (MED),   He..persed his Armure..That it come to his fflesche pure.

a/1535   T. More /Dialoge of Comfort (1553) i. xviii. sig. D.viii,   Tyll the pure panges of death pulled theyr harte fro theyr play.

 

 *b.* Used emphatically or as an intensifier: nothing but (the thing specified); sheer, utter, complete, total, unmitigated.

c/1300   /St. Michael (Laud) 693 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 319 (MED),   Euerech of þeos foure elemenz en-tempriez oþur..So þat vnneþe In any Man any riȝ[t] puyr maister is.

c/1330  (▸?a1300)    /Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) 3325 (MED),   Wiþ pure strengþe of swerdes dint, King Lot he feld, verrament, & was about him to slen.

c/1400  (▸?c1390)    /Sir Gawain & Green Knight (1940) 1247 (MED),   I were glad..At saȝe oþer at seruyce þat I sette myȝt To þe plesaunce of your prys; hit were a pure ioye.

a/1450   /MS Bodl. 779 in Archiv f. das Studium der Neueren Sprachen (1889) 82 379 (MED),   He forsok cristindome & becom al pure heþin.

c/1550   /Clariodus (1830) v. 2303   Melancholike he brunt of pure invy.

1611   G. Chapman May-day v. 73   His Master hath such a pure beleefe in his wife, that hee’s apt to beleeue any good of her.

1694   N. H. Ladies Dict. 69   They are denyed the reading of such wanton Books, only out of pure envy.

1707   E. Ward Wooden World Dissected (1708) 31   The Ale-Wives tickle him..with the Title of Captain, which makes him oft-times stay to get drunk in their Houses, out of pure Joy and Gratitude.

1794   W. Godwin Caleb Williams II. xi. 218,   I believed that misery, more pure than that which I now endured, had never fallen to the lot of a human being.

1863   H. Morford Sprees & Splashes i. 12   All play~goers will remember..a piece of pure nonsense by Brougham, in which an old hunks is intruded upon by his daughter’s lover in disguise.

1870   J. Ruskin Let. in Athenæum 30 Sept. (1905) 428/3   Dickens was a pure modernist—a leader of the steam-whistle party par excellence.

1941   K. A. Porter Let. 7 Jan. (1990) iv. 186   Marriage for me has meant pure disaster, and a strange cruel starvation of the heart.

1967   Times 29 May 6/4   Glissandos on the microtonal harp were pure magic.

1991   F. F. Centore Being & Becoming i. 30   In this light he attacks Hegel’s Pure Spirit as pure stupidity.

 

 *c.* Taken by itself, with nothing added; that is the thing specified, and nothing else; no more than; mere, simple.Often in pure and simple (usually following the noun).

c/1325  (▸c1300)    /Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) 794 (MED),   He isei þat he moste attenende Vor pur meseise vorfare.

?/a/1425   Mandeville’s Trav. (Egerton) (1889) 144 (MED),   Many of þaim diez for pure elde withouten sekeness.

c/1480  (▸a1400)    /St. Paul 1026 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 58   For pure pytte & Ioy þai gret.

a/1616   Shakespeare /Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1623) ii. i. 159   Alas Sir, we did it for pure need.

1639   T. Fuller Hist. Holy Warre iv. xix. 202   Knowing no more how to sway a sceptre then a pure clown to manage a sword.

1724   A. Collins Disc. Grounds Christian Relig. 79   This distinction is the pure invention of those who make the objection.

1860   ‘G. Eliot’ Let. 7 June (1954) III. 302   But the most ignorant journalist in England would hardly think of calling me a rival of Miss Mulock—a writer who is read only by novel readers, pure and simple, never by people of high culture.

1861   M. Pattison in Westm. Rev. 19 408   His delay in setting out was due to pure procrastination and dilatoriness.

1871   B. Jowett tr. Plato Dialogues I. 27   That of which we are speaking is knowledge pure and simple.

1904   J. Conrad Nostromo i. viii. 110   ‘Sir,’ he used to say afterwards, ‘that was no mistake. It was a fatality. A misfortune, pure and simple, sir.’

1993   Nature 21 Oct. 703/3   The discovery of bacteriophage was pure luck.

2005   When Sat. Comes Dec. 32/2   No hype or promises, just pure facts.

 *III.* Free from corruption or defilement.

 *4.*

 

 *a.* Free from moral corruption; of unblemished character or nature; morally untainted; guiltless, innocent, guileless. Formerly also with of, from.

c/1330  (▸?a1300)    /Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) 7514 (MED),   Þo þat ware ded of our, To heuen brouȝt soule pure, And þe slawen Sarrazine Went into helle pine.

c/1400  (▸c1378)    Langland /Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. x. 463 (MED),   Souteres..passen..In-to þe blisse of paradys for her pure byleue.

1481   Myrrour of Worlde (Caxton) i. xiv. 48   To saue his sowle whiche God hath lent to hym pure and clene to thende that he shold rendre it such agayn.

a/1500  (▸c1340)    R. Rolle /Psalter (Univ. Oxf. 64) (1884) xxiii. 4   He..that is pure in werkis and clen in thoghtis.

1526   Bible (Tyndale) Matt. v. f. v,   Blessed are the pure in herte.

1526   Bible (Tyndale) Acts xx. 26,   I am pure from the bloud of all men.

1572  (▸a1500)    Taill of Rauf Coilȝear 20   In point thay war to parische, thay proudest men and pure.

1667   Milton Paradise Lost viii. 506   Nature her self, though pure of sinful thought.

1682   Dryden Religio Laici Pref. sig. a2^v,   Their Descendants lost by little and little the Primitive and Purer Rites.

1719   I. Watts Hymns i. lxxxvi,   How should the sons of Adam’s race Be pure before their God?

1742   W. Law Appeal to All that Doubt iii. 211   Those Mysteries that are only to be approached by those that are of a pure Heart, and who worship God in Spirit and in Truth.

1790   W. Paley Horæ Paulinæ Concl.,   His morality is everywhere calm, pure, and rational.

1849   T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. vii. 171   A friendship as warm and pure as any that ancient or modern history records.

1851   Tennyson To Queen vii,   Her court was pure; her life serene.

1855   T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. xiii. 265   He protested..that his hands were pure from the blood of the persecuted Covenanters.

1922   S. Lewis Babbitt xviii. 225   Outlining the plots of films about pure prostitutes and kind-hearted train-robbers.

1935   E. Bowen House in Paris ii. iv. 128   Karen and Max, two people, were her objects; even with them she did not pursue anything; she was pure in heart.

1990   R. Baker Country in my Cellar ii. vii. 55   He brings you the finest gift it is possible to present to a university—a pure mind, unused, untouched and unscarred by the education production line.

 

†*b.* Applied mockingly to Puritans or Quakers. Obs.

1598   J. Marston Scourge of Villanie i. i,   Lucia, new set thy ruffe; tut, thou art pure, Canst thou not lispe ‘good brother’, look demure?

1602   B. Jonson Poetaster iv. i. 18   To helpe ‘hem to some pure Landresses, out of the City.

1729   H. Carey Poems (ed. 3) 94   The Pure Ones will, I know, with out-stretch’d Voice, Arraign my Judgment, and condemn my Choice.

1785   G. A. Bellamy Apol. Life II. 45   My mother, from being one of the pure ones, had changed her religion to that of a methodist.

 

 *5.* Sexually undefiled; chaste; virgin.

c/1380   Chaucer /Second Nun’s Tale 48   Thow virgyne wemmelees Bar of thy body, and dweltest mayde pure.

?1435  (▸1432)    Lydgate Minor Poems (1934) ii. 636   Alle cladde in white, in tokne off clennesse, Lyche pure virgynes.

?/a/1475   Ludus Coventriae 358 (MED),   Heyl, excellent prynces, mary most pure!

a/1513   J. Irland /Meroure of Wyssdome (1926) I. 101   This haly lady, nete and pure without ony syn.

1588   A. King tr. St. Peter Canisius Catech. in T. G. Law Catholic Tractates (1901) 209   That blissit Marie remaines still puir virgine.

a/1616   Shakespeare /Henry VI, Pt. 1 (1623) v. vi. 83   And yet forsooth she is a Virgin pure.

1671   Milton Paradise Regain’d i. 134   The Virgin pure In Galilee.

1710   R. Steele Tatler No. 210. ⁋6,   I have lived a pure and undefiled Virgin these Twenty seven Years.

1771   tr. J. M. Horstius Paradise of Soul (ed. 2) App. 21   Hail you, the Sea’s bright Star, Who God’s pure Mother are.

1820   Keats Lamia i, in Lamia & Other Poems 14   A virgin purest lipp’d.

1878   W. E. Barnes Serpent & Dove iii. i. 19   She is as pure as an angel.

1904   Hymns Anc. & Mod. No. 55   A maiden pure and undefiled Is by the Spirit great with child.

2002   NFT Programme Booklet June 25/1   Brigitte Helm’s enduring iconic status is based on her extraordinary debut as the pure, virginal Maria.

 

 *6.* Free from admixture of anything debasing or deteriorating; unadulterated, uncorrupted, uncontaminated; conforming accurately to a standard of quality or style; faultless, correct.

▸/a/1393   Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) v. 2604 (MED),   Sche is the pure hed and welle And Mirour and ensample of goode.

c/1400  (▸?a1300)    /Kyng Alisaunder (Laud 622) 84   Jn pure [/a/1425 Linc. Inn puyr] manere of bataile.

c/1450  (▸?a1400)    /Wars Alexander (Ashm.) 3990 (MED),   Of þe pure thewis Þat lurkis with-in þis lede, full litill he kennes.

1526   Bible (Tyndale) James i. 27   Pure devocion and undefiled.

1540   J. Palsgrave in tr. G. Gnapheus Comedye of Acolastus Ep. to King sig. Aiij^v,   In suche places of your realme as the pureste englyshe is spoken.

1617   F. Moryson Itinerary i. 182   At Geneua many French Gentlemen and Students comming thither..did speake pure French.

1668   Bp. J. Wilkins Ess. Real Char. i. i. §4. 5   After the Captivity the pure Hebrew ceased to be Vulgar, remaining onely amongst learned men.

1749   B. Franklin Proposals Educ. Youth Pensilvania in Papers (1961) III. 402   That the Rector be..a correct pure Speaker and Writer of the English Tongue.

1788   Gibbon Decline & Fall (1838) V. l. 21   The purest disciples of Zoroaster escaped from the contagion of idolatry.

1849   T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. ii. 165   They had been oppressed, and oppression had kept them a pure body.

1882   C. Pebody Eng. Journalism xvi. 124   His taste, if severe, was pure.

1999   Independent (Nexis) 4 Apr. (Features section) 5   He tells me proudly that Tuscans speak the ‘purest’ Italian.

 

 *7.* Free from ceremonial defilement; ritually clean; fit for sacred use. rare after 17th cent.

1611   Bible (King James) Ezra vi. 20   The Priestes and the Leuites were purified together, all of them were pure, and killed the Passeouer.

1613   S. Purchas Pilgrimage ii. xvi. 165   His [/sc./ a Jew’s] wife hath prepared his dinner, pure meates purely dressed.

 

2002   J. Magness Archaeol. Qumran & Dead Sea Scrolls v. 87   Pure food and drink stored in sealed vessels in a house or building that became impure would have been rendered impure.

 *IV.* As a general term of appreciation.

 *8.*

 

†*a.* slang. Fine, good, excellent, nice. Obs.

1609   B. Jonson Case is Alterd iii. sig. I2^v,   Is not this pure?

1675   W. Wycherley Country-wife iii. 32,   I was quiet enough, till my Husband told me, what pure lives, the London Ladies live abroad, with their dancing, meeting and junketings.

1695   W. Congreve Love for Love v. i. 81   O I have pure News, I can tell you pure News.

a/1726   J. Vanbrugh /Journey to London (1728) i. ii. 14   A slice of it [/sc./ goose pie] before Supper to-night would have been pure.

1747   D. Garrick Miss in her Teens ii. 18   The Door’s double-lock’d, and I have the Key in my Pocket. Biddy. That’s pure.

1888   W. E. Henley & R. L. Stevenson Deacon Brodie (rev. ed.) i. iii. 28   Oh, such manners are pure, pure, pure.

 

†*b.* pure and —: very, truly; entirely, utterly. Cf. and conj.¹ 5. See also sense B. 1. Obs. (regional in later use).With pure and well cf. sense A. 8c.

1742   H. Fielding Joseph Andrews I. ii. xiv. 268   They [/sc./ hogs] were all pure and fat.

1769   W. Romaine Let. 27 Oct. (1795) xxvii. 122,   I saw Lady H-–— -–—, who was pure and well.

1788   C. Smith Emmeline IV. xiv. 340   You would have been pure and happy, to drive about in a one horse chaise.

1838   W. Holloway Gen. Dict. Provincialisms 134/1   Pure, in good health; as ‘I am pure and well.’

1864   J. S. Le Fanu Uncle Silas II. viii. 127   Here’s a stone that’s pure and flat to sit upon.

1873   Timothy Towser 5   He wor puer an proud ovver ut, too.

 

 *c.* Chiefly Eng. regional. Well; in good health. Cf. purely adj.

1839   G. C. Lewis Gloss. Words Herefordshire in Eng. Dial. Dict. (1903) IV. 650/1   My mistress gives her service to you and she is pure.

1854   N. & Q. 1st Ser. 9 527/1   The word pure is commonly used in Gloucestershire to express being in good health… ‘I hope, Zur, the ladies be all pure.’

a/1903   W. F. Rose in /Eng. Dial. Dict. (1903) IV. 650/1   [Somerset] ‘How b’ye?’ ‘Pure, thenkye.’

1988   J. Lavers Dict. Isle of Wight Dial. 66   Pure..well.

 *B.* adv.See also Compounds 1.

 

 *1.* Absolutely, entirely, thoroughly; very; just, really, truly. Now regional (chiefly U.S. and Sc.).Chiefly from sense A. 3b, but in 18th cent. colloq. use with admixture of sense A. 8b.

c/1300   /St. Kenelm (Laud) 259 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 352 (MED),   Þat writ was puyr on Englisch i-write.

a/1375   /William of Palerne (1867) 3093 (MED),   I wold socour hire..& pult hire out of þis peril in pure litel while.

a/1425  (▸a1400)    /Prick of Conscience (Galba & Harl.) (1863) 2499 (MED),   Our ille dedys er pur ille wroght, Bot our gud dedis pur gud er noght.

1493   Chastysing Goddes Chyldern (de Worde) sig. Hi/1,   It is pure easy..to folow god and serue hym in tyme of tranquylite.

1560   J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. xxxvij,   This yere [1522] departed Reucline, a pure aged man [L. /aetate gravis/].

1710   Swift Jrnl. to Stella 23 Sept. (1948) I. 28   Ballygall will be a pure good place for air.

1750   L. Bushe in M. Delany Autobiogr. & Corr. (1861) II. 548   Your amiable and worthy sister is pure well.

1810   Splendid Follies I. 78   The course will be pure swampy in some parts.

1888   S. O. Addy Gloss. Words Sheffield 183   ‘Pure well’ is very well.

1901   ‘M. E. Francis’ Pastorals of Dorset 269,   I be pure sorry they Boers haven’t a-done it for en.

1928   J. M. Peterkin Scarlet Sister Mary iii. 27   My jaws pure leak water just to look at em.

1932   W. Faulkner Light in August xv. 332   He was pure crazy by now, standing on the corner and yelling at whoever would pass.

1967   N. Mailer Why are we in Vietnam? v. 83   He inquires after Big Ollie’s second gun, knowing pure well there is only the Remington 721.

1993   I. Welsh Trainspotting 71   Lizzy tells us that she pure fancies going to the pictures to see The Accused.

 

 *2.* Qualifying an adjective of colour (chiefly white): purely, with no admixture of any other colour. Not always clearly distinguishable from the adjective when pure white is used attrib. and the adjective might easily modify the noun, as pure white rose, etc.

c/1325  (▸c1300)    /Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) 182   So clene & vair & pur ȝwit [/v.r./ purwyt] among oþere men hit [/read/ hij; v.r. heo; a/1400 /Trin. Cambr. hij] beþ.

1530   J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 259/2   Pure white sylke, soye bissine.

1594   R. Barnfield Affectionate Shepheard ii. xxxix. sig. Di,   For pure white the Lilly beares the Bell.

a/1616   Shakespeare /Winter’s Tale (1623) iii. iii. 21   In pure white robes Like very sanctity she did approach.

a/1618   J. Sylvester /New-polished Spectacles in tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Diuine Weekes & Wks. (1621) 1183   The Lilly (first) pure-whitest Flowr of any.

1688   H. Walker tr. C. Gallus in J. Barker Poet. Recreations ii. 220   Her pure white Hair around her shoulders spread.

1710   A. Philips Pastorals i. 5   A Lambkin too, pure white.

1777   H. Mackenzie Julia de Roubigné I. xvi. 167   Her bosom looked as pure white as the driven snow.

1805   M. Lewis Jrnl. 8 July in Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Exped. (1987) IV. 367   The spaces between..is marked by ranges of pure white circular spots.

1853   W. Gregory Inorg. Chem. (ed. 3) 256   Gold is distinguished by its pure yellow colour.

1910   Encycl. Brit. I. 780/1   Others are pure white or of varying shades of yellow or green.

1922   Endocrinology 6 222   A litter of eight pure black rats.

2002   S. J. Gould Struct. Evolutionary Theory v. 389   The Holy Ghost, depicted as a pure white dove in many medieval paintings.

 

†*3.* Purely (in various senses); simply, merely; rightly; chastely. Obs. rare.

a/1500  (▸a1475)    G. Ashby /Dicta Philosophorum 590 in Poems (1899) 69 (MED),   A kynge shude be right besy and studious To gouerne his Roiaulme & his people pure.

a/1616   Shakespeare /Twelfth Night (1623) v. i. 79   For his sake, Did I expose my selfe (pure for his loue) Into the danger.

a/1616   Shakespeare /Hamlet (1623) iii. iv. 149   O throw away the worser part of it, And liue the purer with the other halfe.

 *C.* n.

 

†*1.* That which is pure; purity. Obs. (poet. in later use).  [In quots. /a/1382¹   and /a/1382²   rendering post-classical Latin ad purum purely (4th cent.), lit. ‘to the pure’ (classical Latin pūrum, use as noun of neuter of pūrus, is only attested denoting a clear, unclouded sky).]

▸/a/1382   Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) 3 Kings xiv. 10,   I schal clensen þe relikes of þe hous of Jeroboam, as is wont to ben clensyd muc vn to þe pure [/a/1425 L.V. til to the purete, ether clennesse; L. /usque ad purum/].

▸/a/1382   Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1969) Isa. i. 25,   I shal sethen out to þe pure [/a/1425 L.V. to the cleene; L. /ad purum/] þi dros.

1593   T. Lodge in R. S. Phœnix Nest 50   Hir eies shrowd pitie, pietie, and pure.

1662   K. Evans & S. Chevers Short Relation Cruel Sufferings 60   That is the Enemies opportunity to step in..and to vail the pure, and darken the understanding.

1667   Milton Paradise Lost viii. 627   Union of Pure with Pure.

1873   R. Browning Red Cotton Night-cap Country ii. 117   How heaven’s own pure may seem To blush.

1874   Tennyson Merlin & Vivien (new ed.) in Wks. VI. 10   The mask of pure Worn by this court.

1898   G. Meredith Odes French Hist. 6   Earth’s warrior Best To win Heaven’s Pure.

 *2.*

 

 *a.* With the. Pure people as a class; those people considered or considering themselves to be untainted by immorality.

c/1440  (▸?c1350)    in G. G. Perry /Relig. Pieces in Prose & Verse (1914) 31 (MED),   Þe gude folke þat are in religion..are sothefastly pure, and þairs es þe Ioye of heuen, For þat es the benyson of þe pure.

1526   Bible (Tyndale) Titus i. 15   Unto the pure are all thynges pure.

a/1586   Sir P. Sidney /Psalms xviii,   Pure to the pure, thou deal’st with the crooked crookedly.

a/1627  (▸a1598)    A. Montgomerie /Poems (2000) lxiii. 103   Quhat Justice sauld! vhat pilling of the pure!

1721   R. Blackmore New Version Psalms i. 2   The Wicked cannot..enter..Th’ Assembly of the Pure.

?1805   S. T. Coleridge Ad Vilmum Axiologum in Poems No. 189. 392   List! the Hearts of the Pure, like caves in the ancient mountains.

1895   G. Allen Woman who Did vii. 80   Herminia, for her part, never discovered she was talked about. To the pure all things are pure.

1914   B. Tarkington Penrod v. 31,   I am the purest of the pure. I have but kindest thoughts each day.

1992   Economist 22 Feb. 64/1   Sikhs want an independent homeland called Khalistan, or land of the Pure.

 

 *b.* A genuine person. rare.

1924   W. M. Raine Troubled Waters xix. 201   You-all are losing a better man than Missie ever had. He’s a pure, Mac is.

 

†*3.* ‘Pured’ fur: see pured n., purray n. Obs.

1512   in J. B. Paul Accts. Treasurer Scotl. (1902) IV. 215   For lyning of the said Tanne weluus goune within with puyr.

 

†*4.* slang. A kept mistress. Obs.

1688   T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia ii. i. 32   Where’s..the Blowing, that is to be my Natural, my Convenient, my Pure.

1699   B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew/   /Pure, a Mistress.

 

 *5.* Med. Originally: a surgeon or physician who does not dispense medication. In later use: a hospital surgeon; a consultant surgeon. Cf. sense A. 2e. Now hist.

1827   Lancet 15 Dec. 434/2   Do the Pures profess a kind of surgery in the abstract?

1843   J. Paget Let. 19 Dec. in Mem. & Lett. (1901) vi. 148   The election of the pures in London was not I am told general. [/Editor’s note/, 1901] The ‘pures’ were the surgeons in consulting practice.

1881   Lancet 10 Dec. 1021/1   The ‘pure’ foreseeing that in paying much attention to one organ there would be a natural tendency to forget the rest of the body,..did not fail to point this out… It was a mixture of these two feelings which led the older ‘pures’ to exclaim..against special practice and to cause them to treat all special practitioners as ‘specialists’.

 

 *6.* Also pewer, puer. Tanning. Canine or other faeces used as an alkaline lye in which to steep hides. Now hist.

1842   Penny Mag. May 212/1   A solution called the ‘pure’ or the ‘pewer’ (having never seen the word written.., we must spell it as pronounced) is prepared in a large vessel, and into this the skins are immersed.

1851   H. Mayhew London Labour II. 142/1   Dogs’-dung is called ‘Pure’, from its cleansing and purifying properties.

1938   R. Hum Chem. for Engin. Students xxviii. 775   In the case of soft pliable leathers, another process is also used, before passing on to the tanning. This is known as the Puer or Bates Process, and consists in soaking, in a warm mixture of water and dog’s or bird’s dung, for two or three days.

1946   Thorpe’s Dict. Appl. Chem. (ed. 4) VII. 264/2   Modern artificial bates have replaced almost completely the older ‘dung bate’ or puer, an infusion of dog- or, less often, pigeon-dung.

 

 *7.* slang (orig. U.S.). Unadulterated or uncut heroin or (sometimes) cocaine.

1955   in Illicit Narcotics Traffic (U.S. Senate Comm. on Judiciary) (1956) vii. 2409,   I think an ounce of pure cost about a hundred dollars then.

1967   ‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp iv. 79   Musta’ shot some ‘pure’, cause a lookout on the sidewalk heard him mumble before he croaked. ‘Well kiss my dead mammy’s ass if this ain’t the best “smack” I ever shot.’

1986   ‘E. McBain’ Cinderella v. 68   Two kilos of pure, that was a bit more than seventy ounces.

1992   Guardian 28 Mar. (Weekend Suppl.) 10/4,   I am re-packaging six ounces of Columbian pure for the scousers who are due any minute.

Special uses

 *S1.* Parasynthetic.

 

 

  pure-bosomed adj.

1800   W. Cowper Poems (new ed.) I. 315   Blessing and blest where’er she goes, Pure-bosom’d as that wat’ry glass, And heav’n reflected in her face.

1852   Ladies Repository Jan. 40/2   She who does otherwise, does that which no high-aiming, pure-bosomed female could do—she pollutes her marriage vow.

2004   Jrnl. Ecumenical Stud. (Nexis) 1 Jan.   Mary became selfless, and in this selflessness she said, ‘I will leap into God’s protection’, because that pure-bosomed one could take herself to the Unseen.

 

  pure-coloured   adj.

1721   C. K. Art’s Master-piece (ed. 5) ii. i. 88   When ‘tis pure colour’d work it as you please.

1891   W. Morris News from Nowhere xxi. 158,   I looked around my little sleeping chamber and saw the pale but pure-coloured figures painted on the plaster of the wall.

1910   Encycl. Brit. I. 509/1   When one of these albinoes is bred with a pure coloured individual, a mixed offspring will appear in the first generation.

1993   Metrop. Mus. Jrnl. 28 188   The young artist also turned to bolder pure-colored wet-wash practices as a model.

 

  pure-eyed adj.

1637   Milton Comus 8   O welcome pure-ey’d Faith, white-handed Hope..And thou unblemish’t forme of Chastitie.

1793   W. Kendall Poems 47   Lo! pure-eyed virtue lends her aid To celebrate a spotless maid.

1891   G. Meredith One of our Conquerors III. x. 202   The tall pure-eyed girl before him, was, young though she was, already in the fight with evil.

1931   Weekly Kansas City (Missouri) Star 10 June 6/3   ‘I believe you’, said Belinda, pure-eyed and trustful, ‘yet there is something, something that you are keeping from me’.

1997   Guardian (Nexis) 19 June 19   The pure-eyed battles these people couldn’t refrain from fighting.

 

† pure-mannered adj. Obs.

a/1863   Thackeray /Miscellanies (1877) IV. 530/1   The most spotless, pure-mannered darling of a princess that ever married a heartless debauchee of a Prince Royal.

 

  pure-natured adj.

1855   W. Bagehot Coll. Wks. (1965) I. 319   They are emphatically pure~natured and firm-natured. Instinctively casting aside the coarse temptations and crude excitements of a vulgar earth, [etc.].

1913   J. Masefield Daffodil Fields 12   Gentle she seemed, pure-natured, thoughtful, wise.

2002   Sunday Tel. (Nexis) 5 May 14   [Vautrin’s] sanctification of his women characters, be they tarts with hearts..[or] pure-natured factory girls ravished by the bourgeoisie.

 

  pure-sighted adj.

1596   Spenser Hymne Heauenly Loue in Fowre Hymnes 276   All earthes glorie..[will] Seeme durt and drosse in thy pure-sighted eye.

1638   R. Braithwait Psalmes of David 28   Just therefore, as my Justice stands, the Lord to mee supplies: Rewards the purenesse of my hands in his pure-sighted eies.

1898   Nebraska State Jrnl. 23 Jan. 13/1   We are made to see the world—that is, her world—through her eyes, which are perfectly pure-sighted… Her child-soul remains unsullied.

1997   Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 19 Oct. 7   He became known as a recluse, his ‘appearance’ in poetry pure-sighted and merciless.

 

  pure-souled adj.

1830   E. Duros Derwentwater I. 155   Has thy pure souled loyalty led only to this reward?

1894   R. Kipling Day’s Work Dec. 76   He ain’t any high-toned, pure-souled child o’ nature.

1910   F. M. Ford Let. 28 Oct. (1965) 45   When you—the unscrupulous villain and I, the pure-souled Idealist join forces how that dovecote will flutter!

2006   Guardian (Nexis) 7 Jan. (Review section) 7   There are few heroes in it,..none of Kafka’s own pure-souled sufferers; everyone is stained, contaminated, implicated.

 

  pure-toned adj.

1831   N. Amer. Rev. Jan. 91   She has the strong sense, the quiet energy, the pure-toned feeling, the absence of affectation,..which would secure the highest esteem and admiration in real life.

1927   Musical Times 68 269/2   This happy body of choralists has established a well-merited reputation for balanced and pure-toned singing.

1993   Classic CD Oct. 62/4   Surprisingly pure-toned for Debussy, her performance..is refreshing.

 *S2.*

 

  pure-breeding n. and adj.  /(a)/ n. the production of genetically similar progeny (cf. pure-bred adj.);  /(b)/ adj. producing genetically similar progeny.

1903   Biometrika 2 171   This does not help us to decide whether the relative inability to transmit whiteness is due to in-breeding or pure-breeding.

1922   R. C. Punnett Mendelism (ed. 6) ix. 88   The cock in a pure breeding strain of Plymouth Rocks is homozygous for the barring factor.

1964   D. Michie in G. H. Haggis et al. Introd. Molecular Biol. viii. 206   Griffith injected mice with living pneumococci of a pure-breeding strain lacking the polysaccharide capsule characteristic of most members of this species.

1990   Dogworld Aug. 109/2   Pure breeding is fine when things are going well, but disastrous when inbred faults such as weak hindquarters are being perpetuated.

 

  pure-cone adj. Zool. (of an animal, or its eye or retina) having only cones as photoreceptors.

1932   Bull. Antivenin Inst. Amer. 5 69/1   The pure-cone reptilian eye not being subject to dazzle at ordinary intensities is served quite well by a round pupil, while a rod-and-cone eye such as that of the rattlesnake must have an elliptical pupil.

1962   Science Survey 3 243   One of the American ground squirrels, one of the few mammalian species known to have a pure-cone retina and to be strongly diurnal.

1997   Vision Res. 37 1867   In the pure-cone American chameleon retina, all visual opsins including rod opsin are expressed.

 

  pure culture   n. Microbiol. a culture in which only one strain or clone is present.

1883   Science 23 Nov. 677/1   A decision of the question..can only be settled experimentally by collecting the bacteria from the diseased tissue, breeding them by ‘pure culture’, and then reproducing the disease by infection experiments on animals.

1930   Forestry 4 66   It seemed possible..that pure culture experiments..might also yield some information..on the origin of the mycorrhizal habit in trees.

1997   Appl. & Environmental Microbiol. 63 4097/2   This is the first report on the isolation and characterization of a pure culture of bacteria capable of mineralizing TCP and using it as a sole source of carbon and energy.

 

  pure ego   n. Philos. and Psychol. (chiefly in phenomenological thought) the essential, transcendental self that exists prior to, and is unchanged by, experience.

1851   J. J. G. Wilkinson Human Body 283   Those who attach themselves to the ‘pure Ego’ as having an independent life in itself.

1890   W. James Princ. Psychol. I. x. 296   By the Spiritual Self, so far as it belongs to the Empirical Me, I mean a man’s inner or subjective being, his psychic faculties or dispositions, taken concretely; not the bare principle of personal Unity, or ‘pure’ Ego.

1931   W. R. B. Gibson tr. E. Husserl Ideas ii. ii. 145   The thesis of my pure Ego and its personal life which is ‘necessary’ and plainly indubitable, thus stands opposed to the thesis of the world which is contingent.

1961   G. W. Allport Devel. of Personality vi. 129   Kant argued that..the knowing self is just there, a transcendental or pure ego.

1974   G. L. Breckon tr. A. de Muralt Idea of Phenomenol. §52. 328   The pure ego is therefore the subject of transcendental constitution, the ego pole of intentionality, the centre and point of departure of every intentional function.

1998   Critical Inquiry 25 29   No soul, no pure ego, no extrapolated physical presence that would testify to a person’s unique, unreplicable identity.

 

  pure food   n. (also Pure Food) attrib. of, relating to, or concerned with the promotion of food that is free from preservatives, colouring, or other additives, or cultivated without the use of chemical fertilizers (cf. organic adj. 8c).

1894   Jrnl. Franklin Inst. Apr. 267   Senator Paddock, of Nebraska..after years of futile struggle, succeeded in having the Senate pass what is known as the Pure Food Bill.

1913   Collier’s Weekly 16 Aug. 24/2   The clubwomen of Idaho are banded together to have their State known as a pure-food State.

1923   P. G. Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves xvi. 214,   I was feeling more or less like something the Pure Food Committee had rejected.

1969   ‘I. Drummond’ Man with Tiny Head xiv. 161   He was..a pure-food fanatic with a hatred of chemical fertilisers.

2000   A. Cooper & L. M. Holmes Bitter Harvest i. 15   A pure food law introduced to Congress in 1889 was virtually laughed off the floor.

 

  pure-hearted adj. and n.  /(a)/ adj.pure of heart;  /(b)/ n.(with the) pure-hearted people as a class.

1613   W. Leighton Teares or Lament. 155   All yee that are pure hearted men, in great [/printed/ grear] Iehouah, still reioyce.

1702   L. Echard Gen. Eccl. Hist. i. iv. 67   To the Pure-hearted, who shou’d see God.

1813   S. T. Coleridge Coll. Lett. (1959) III. 461   Two virtuous, pure-hearted..Women.

1832   J. G. Whittier in S. T. Pickard Life & Lett. J. G. Whittier (1894) I. iii. 108   Those who o’er our tarnished honor grieve..the pure-hearted and the gifted.

1927   V. Woolf To Lighthouse i. iv. 39   Praise would be an insult to you; generous, pure-hearted, heroic man!

1994   Film Comment Sept.–Oct. 63/1   Her independent, pally-aggressive, tarnished but purehearted heroine.

1996   N.Y. Rev. Bks. 1 Feb. 8/3   The simple-minded (as they used to be more accurately called) are also the pure-hearted.

 

  pure-jet adj. and n. Aeronaut.  /(a)/ adj. designating engines, aircraft, etc., in which all thrust is provided directly by the exhaust jet, without the assistance of fans or propellers;  /(b)/ n. a pure-jet engine or aircraft.

1944   Times 26 May 2/1   There were three possible lines of development—the pure jet propulsion turbine unit, the combined jet and airscrew turbine unit, and the composite piston engine-turbine unit.

1951   N.Y. Times Mag. 21 Oct. 59/2   Certainly, the pure jet does land a little ‘hotter’ than the propeller plane.

1960   C. H. Gibbs-Smith Aeroplane xvi. 127   Turboprop engines are ideal for commercial airliners whose operations take them too far from the optimum conditions of altitude and speed necessary for the economic use of the pure jet.

1986   Aviation News July 177/1   As far back as 25 July 1949, more than a year before hopes of the pure-jet XF-88 were dashed, [etc.].

 

  pure line   n. and adj.  [after German reine Linie ( W. Johannsen Ueber Erblichkeit in Populationen u. in reinen Linien (1903) 9)] Genetics and Agric.  /(a)/ n. an inbred line of descent;  /(b)/ adj. belonging to such a line.

1903   New Phytologist 2 236   These passages give the aim of Professor Johannsen’s work, viz. the elucidation of the statistical laws of heredity for the race by the study of the corresponding laws for the ‘pure line’, i.e. the posterity of a single self-fertilised individual.

1932   Discovery Oct. 320/2   In the cotton industry we have the magnificent succession of ‘pure lines’ particularly in the Egyptian cottons.

1965   ‘Lauchmonen’ Old Thom’s Harvest i. 5   When I get my credit-bank money to buy pure-line seeds them ricefields gwine be planted again.

2004   Jrnl. Animal Sci. 82 1902/1   The advantages of crossbred pigs over pure line pigs were substantial for all traits.

 

  pure-minded adj. having a pure mind, pure of mind.

1789   tr. T. Ghulām Ḥusayn Ṭabāṭabā'ī Sëir Mutaqharin I. 452   The merits of my pure-minded [Persian /pākīza-nafas/] and immaculate bodied..ancestors.

a/1822   Shelley /Peter Bell III vi, in Poet. Wks. (?1840) 245/1   The most sublime, religious, Pure-minded Poet.

1892   R. L. Stevenson & L. Osbourne Wrecker iii. 43   To be pure-minded, to be patriotic, to get culture and money with both hands and with the same irrational fervour.

1912   Catholic Encycl. XIV. 664/1   The pure-minded novice drove the temptress from his room.

2006   Edmonton (Alberta) Jrnl. (Nexis) 11 Feb. e1   The pure-minded do-gooder types who inhabit the colourful, idealized New York of Damon Runyon’s short stories.

 

  pure-mindedness n. the quality of being pure-minded; purity of mind.

1799   tr. Kant Ess. & Treat. II. 385   Whoever possesses such a pure mindedness [Ger. /lautere Gesinnung/] as is required, is certain that he never can fall so low as to be once more in love with the bad.

1863   M. Arnold in Fraser’s Mag. Jan. 49/2   Treasures..of pure-mindedness.

1891   G. Meredith One of our Conquerors III. vii. 135   He might have put a reluctant faith in the puremindedness of these aspirations, without reverting to her origin.

2000   Weekly Standard (Nexis) 7 Feb. 4   Where, after all, does one send a child to educate her in bravery and pure-mindedness?

 

  pure play   n. Stock Market and Business (chiefly U.S.) a company that focuses exclusively on one particular market or commodity; (now also) a company whose products are available only via the Internet.

1969   Wall St. Jrnl. 23 June 33   For more aggressive investors, Loeb-Rhoades choices in the field are Monroe Auto Equipment and Midas International (over-the-counter). These..companies are viewed as the ‘pure plays’ in the field.

1996   Computer Reseller News 1 July 31/2   We’re the only large pure play on the Internet or intranet that actually has revenue profits.

2000   Wired Apr. (Special Advt. section),   How many people can name more than a couple of ‘pure play’ ecommerce sites (businesses without a bricks-and-mortar component) that are actually turning a profit?

2003   D. L. Scott Wall St. Words (ed. 3) 295   An investor who believes that snowmobiles are the wave of the future will search for a pure play in snowmobiles.

 

  pure-relational adj. Linguistics (now rare) designating an element that describes a relationship between objects which is part of the basic structure of the grammar of a language, e.g. a case of a noun; (also) designating a language rich in or characterized by such forms.

1921   E. Sapir Lang. v. 107   Pure Relational Concepts (purely abstract): normally expressed by affixing non-radical elements to radical elements..or by their inner modification, by independent words, or by position; serve to relate the concrete elements of the proposition to each other, thus giving it definite syntactic form.

1921   E. Sapir Lang. vi. 145   Languages that keep the syntactic relations pure and that do not possess the power to modify the significance of their radical elements by means of affixes or internal changes. We may call these Pure-relational non~deriving languages or, more tersely, Simple Pure-relational languages. These are the languages that cut most to the bone of linguistic expression.

1944   R. A. Hall Hungarian Gram. (Language Monograph No. 21) 22   There are three fundamental types of suffixes which are added to substantives: derivational (the plural suffix), concrete-relational (the personal possessive suffixes, expressing ownership of the object denoted by the noun, on the part of the person indicated by the suffix), and pure-relational (twenty suffixes, including the accusative, whose addition gives the substantive adverbial function).

1963   N. N. Poppe Tatar Man. ii. 34   Pure-relational suffixes are added to the concrete-relational (possessive) suffixes… The pure-relational suffixes serve to denote the relations between an object and other objects or between an object and an action. The system of pure-relational forms is what is commonly called ‘declension’.

 

  pure-rod adj. Zool. (of an animal, or its eye or retina) having only rods as photoreceptors.

1932   G. L. Walls in Bull. Antivenin Inst. Amer. 5 69/1   The pure-rod eye sometimes has a pupil which is capable of absolute closure, as in many geckoes.

1962   Science Survey 3 242   In ‘pure-rod’ eyes the retinal structure is always the limiting factor for visual acuity and in these eyes it is always poor.

1992   Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 89 6841   In spite of the pure-rod morphology of the photoreceptor cells, the biochemical properties of P521 and P467 resemble those of iodopsin (the chicken red-sensitive cone visual pigment) and rhodopsin.

 

  pure villeinage n.  [after post-classical Latin villenagium purum (from 13th cent. in British legal sources), Middle French pure vilenage   (1496 or earlier in the passage translated in quot. /c/1523)] Medieval Hist. a form of villeinage in which the terms of service were not specified or limited, as distinguished from privileged villeinage.

c/1523   J. Rastell tr. /Tenuris sig. Aiii^v/2,   To hold in pure villennage [Fr. /en pure vilenage/] is to do all that the lord wyll hym commaunde.

1787   W. Muchall in tr. C. Saint German Doctor & Student (ed. 17) ii. xviii. 157 (note)    While they perform the services which that custom imposes upon them, (light and easy as they are compared with the drudgery of pure villeinage in its orginal state).

1857   Times 26 Dec. 9/2   The relation, which had orginally been that of ‘privileged villenage’, was thus soon converted here and there into ‘pure villenage’.

1991   R. J. Steinfeld Invention Free Labor iv. 120   Apprenticeship, the form of English service that involved binding for long years and that earlier commentators had described as most like pure villeinage.

 

  pure-watered adj. of unmarred brilliance (cf. water n. 25a).

1851   H. Melville Moby-Dick xciii. 459   In the clear air of day,..the pure-watered diamond drop will healthful glow.

1929   E. Blunden Eng. Poems (rev. ed.) 54   Here yet its fruit-trees shield love-nooks, Its well’s pure-watered diamond.

Compounds

 *C1.* Combinations of the adverb with past participles.

 

  pure-driven adj.

1875   H. Ellison Stones from Quarry 311   Hiding all his failings as pure driven, Unsullied snow the stains on gravestones does.

1919   Ogden (Utah) Standard 24 June 5   It will eat away all stains and leave your tub as white as pure driven snow.

1988   Mountain Democrat (Placerville, Calif.) 7 Sept. a4   A wonderously woven sling [/sc./ sling-back shoe] in tan or pure driven white.

 

  pure-living adj.

a/1869   R. Leighton /Reuben & other Poems (1875) ii. ii. 59   The cock that crows up all pure-living things, Warns us, like guilty spectres, to our lairs.

1896   Abp. Benson in Nat. Church Feb. 51/2   Pray we for a temperate, a pure-living people.

2006   Mail on Sunday (Nexis) 2 Apr. (You Mag.) 32   She’s restrained enough only to smoke one and politely asks permission, first while sipping on an antioxidant green tea. Quite a yin-and-yang combination, albeit still not one that would meet with her pure-living parents’ approval.

 

  pure-washed adj.

a/1729   E. Taylor /Poems (1960) 333   A flock of pure Washt Sheep more white.

1802   R. Bloomfield Rural Tales 76   On the pure-wash’d sand.

1993   Taste Aug.–Sept. 55/2   The espresso experts..warn against using pure washed arabicas in a blend.

 *C2.* Objective compounds of the noun (in sense C. 6).

 

  pure collector   n.

1851   H. Mayhew London Labour II. 142/2   There are about 30 tanyards..and these all have their regular Pure collectors.

2006   Express (Nexis) 24 Apr. 43   We might never know the misery endured by the Pure Collector, who collected dog dirt from the streets and sold it to leather-makers.

 

  pure-finder   n.

1851   H. Mayhew London Labour II. 142/1   The name of ‘Pure-finders’..has been applied to the men engaged in collecting dogs’-dung from the..streets.

1961   Times 17 Aug. 11/2   There is perhaps some Schadenfreude involved in reading about all those orphans and mudlarks and pure-finders.

2005   Philadelphia Inquirer (Nexis) 30 Oct. h7   She is particularly informative about the working poor whose livelihood depended on the sewers—the ‘flushers’ and ‘gangers’, ‘toshers’ and ‘pure finders’, who survived by (literally) paddling through the leavings of others.