provincial, a. and n.
(prəʊˈvɪnʃəl)
[a. F. provincial (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), or ad. L. prōvinciāl-is, f. prōvincia: see prec. and -al1.]
A. adj. Of or belonging to a province or provinces.
1. Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical province.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xi. 56 For whiles fortune is þi frende, Freres wil þe louye..and for þe biseke, To her priour prouyncial a pardoun forto haue. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 40 Þe mynystris prouyncials, to whom only..be grauntid leue to resceyue freris. 1483 Caxton's Chron. Eng. iv. (1520) 33/1 Yf the cause were shewed in the provyncyall counsel of bysshops. 1529 More Dyaloge i. Wks. 109/1 That the clargye of this realme hath..by a constytucion prouincial prohybited any boke of scripture to bee translated into the englyshe tonge. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 70 b, It was necessarye to haue a lawfull counsell, eyther prouinciall, or general. 1578 2nd Bk. Discipl. Ch. Scot. vii. §18 Provinciall assemblies we call lawful conventions of the pastors doctors and uther eldaris of a province. 1649 Milton Eikon. xiii. Wks. 1851 III. 444 Not Presbytery but Arch-Presbytery, Classical, Provincial, and Diocesan Presbytery. 1726 Ayliffe Parergon p. xxxvii, A Law made in a Provincial Synod is properly term'd a Provincial Constitution. 1851 Hussey Papal Power i. 4 He had good reason to appeal from a provincial judgment of his case. |
2. a. Of or belonging to a civil province, e.g. an ancient Roman province, or a province of a modern country or state; rarely, of an English county; now specifically of Canada.
| 1594 O. B. Quest. Profit. Concern. 15, I am a poore wretched vnderling, and no prouinciall man, neither warden of my company. 1633 T. Stafford Pac. Hib. i. ii. (1821) 36 By the perswasion of the Provinciall rebells. 1647 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. iii. (1739) 4 In this provincial way of Government of Britain, under the Roman Lieutenants. 1690 Temple Misc. ii. iv. Poetry 36 The common People used that [Latin language] still, but vitiated with the base allay of their Provincial Speech. 1795 Quebec Gaz. 8 Jan. 3/1 Clerk of the Provincial Court for the District of Three Rivers. 1796 Burke Corr. (1844) IV. 363, I believe that place has more of the stuff of a good provincial capital, than any town in England. 1804 Europ. Mag. XLV. 35/2 At the head of these four provincial Kings [of Ulster, Leinster, Munster, and Connaught] was placed a supreme Monarch. 1835 Thirlwall Greece I. viii. 307 The provincial land was tributary to the state. 1849 J. E. Alexander L'Acadie I. 35 It was found necessary to intermingle the newly arrived regulars with the Glengarry light infantry, a provincial corps. 1874 Parker Goth. Archit. ii. 283 These round towers, or campaniles of Ravenna seem to constitute a provincial type. 1878 Herald (Ottawa) 24 Jan. 1/4 Two whiskey informers..were under the protection of the Provincial Police. 1965 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 10 Mar. 1/6 Provincial police said the single-engined plane..struck the lines with its undercarriage. 1968 Ibid. 3 Feb. 11/1 He said his department is seeking to have provincial services extended to Indians. 1976 Telegraph-Jrnl. (St. John, New Brunswick) 12 Aug. 1/1 He will recommend a provincial tax hike. |
b. Of the American provinces or colonies of European states, esp. of the British colonies; colonial. Cf. B. 4 b. Obs. exc. Hist.
| 1688 Col. Rec. Pennsylv. I. 228 At a Meeting of the Deputy Governor and Provinciall Councill. 1760 Hist. in Ann. Reg. 59/2 The whole regular, and no small part of the provincial force, which remained in Canada. 1764 Answ. to Queries on Govt. Maryland 16 Like the provincial rattle-snake coiled up, whose poison is best prevented by a switch. 1776 N. Jersey Archives Ser. ii. I. 55 Elected..to represent the County of Bergen in Provincial Congress, to be held at Trenton. 1882 Freeman Lect. to Amer. Audiences ii. iv. 320 The word provincial was, with a near approach to accuracy, often applied to your Thirteen Colonies, while they were still dependencies of Great Britain. 1898 E. B. Greene The Provincial Govnr. in Eng. Colonies of N.A. Pref. 5 The term ‘Provincial Governor’ has been chosen to designate the chief executive of the Royal and proprietary colonies. |
† 3. Having the relation of a province to a sovereign state. Also fig. Obs.
| 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 243 He being a Prince of a Prouinciall iurisdiction. 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. Epit. (1612) 363 As of the aforesaid Countrie called Angel or Angulus, now prouincial to Denmarke. 1649 Bulwer Pathomyot. Ep. Ded. 1 The Argument of it [this Book] is Provinciall to Physick. 1685 Dryden Pref. Albion & Albanius Ess. (ed. Ker) I. 272 The other parts of it..are still as much provincial to Italy, as..in the time of the Roman Empire. 1708 J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. i. i. i. (1737) 2 The whole Provincial Britain..was..divided into Britannia Prima, Britannia Secunda, and Maxima Cæsariensis. |
4. a. Of or belonging to a province or provinces as distinguished from the nation or state of which it or they form a part; local; hence (inaccurately), of the ‘provinces’ (see province 5) as distinguished from the capital (the usage of which is taken as national); situated in ‘the provinces’.
(A French idiom, referring orig. to the provinces of France.)
| 1638 Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. II.) 190 You know provinciall spirits [orig. (1624) esprits provinciaux] are extremely greedy. 1674 Dryden Prol. at Opening New House 22 That, like the ambitious monarchs of the age, They give the law to our provincial stage. 1772 Gouv. Morris in Sparks Life & Writ. (1832) I. 17 Those many barbarisms which characterize a provincial education. 1787 Grose Provinc. Gloss. Pref. 3 Provincial or local words are of three kinds, the first, either Saxon or Danish, in general grown obsolete from disuse. 1809–10 Coleridge Friend (1865) 154 An article in a provincial paper of recent date. 1844 Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. ix. §2 (1862) 120 In Paris and the great provincial towns. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xviii. IV. 142 Merchants resident at Bristol and other provincial seaports. 1867 Harper's Mag. Dec. 96/1 The provincial theatres compare favorably with those of London. 1880 Swinburne Stud. Shaks. 113 His [Shakspere's] patriotism was too national to be provincial. 1882 Freeman Lect. to Amer. Audiences ii. iv. 320 In Great Britain there are no provinces, for every spot of the land has equal rights with every other. Little Pedlington is no more provincial than London. 1952 Granville Dict. Theatr. Terms 145 Provincial theatre, the stage outside London. |
b. transf. Said of foxhunting outside the ‘shires’.
| 1861 G. J. Whyte-Melville Mkt. Harb. i. v. 35, I could have made you, now, a particular neat provincial boot; but with this pattern it's exceedingly difficult to attain the correct appearance for the flying countries. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 1 Dec. 4/2 Good sport has not been confined to the shires... Provincial packs have enjoyed their full share. |
c. spec. Of a university other than the older universities of Oxford and Cambridge (or other than that of Oxford only).
| 1914 C. Mackenzie Sinister St. II. iii. ix. 688 It was still natural to regard Cambridge as a provincial university, and to take pleasure in shocking the earnest young Cambridge man with the metropolitan humours and airy self-assurance of Oxford. 1955 Ann. Reg. 1954 351 Lucky Jim..was an example of the work of the new ‘provincial school’ about which there was much talk in the year. 1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 17 Jan. 30/4 Talk of..‘the red-brick intellectuals’, though no Movement founder-member had done more than teach at one of the provincial universities. 1966 C. M. Bowra Memories 1898–1939 xiii. 320 In the United States the academic profession had ties all over the country and was not divided as in England into Oxford and Cambridge on the one side and ‘provincial’ universities on the other. 1978 Encounter July 8/1, I studied at an English provincial university. |
5. Having the manners or speech of a province or ‘the provinces’; exhibiting the character, especially the narrowness of view or interest, associated with or attributed to inhabitants of ‘the provinces’; wanting the culture or polish of the capital.
| [a 1745 Swift (J.), A country 'squire having only the provincial accent upon his tongue, which is neither a fault, nor in his power to remedy.] 1755 Johnson, Provincial,..rude; unpolished. a 1774 Harte Eulogius Poems (1810) 385/2 His mien was awkward; graces he had none; Provincial were his notions and his tone. 1813 M. Edgeworth Let. 6 Apr. (1971) 10 He..speaks excellent language but with a strong provincial accent which at once destroys all idea of elegance. 1817 Chalmers Astron. Disc. vi. (1852) 136 Christianity is not so paltry and provincial a system as Infidelity presumes it to be. 1863 Trollope Rachel Ray I. vi. 118 Mrs. Rowan perceived at once that Mrs. Tappitt was provincial,..but she was a good motherly woman. 1864 Bagehot Lit. Stud. (1878) II. 126 ‘Tristram Shandy’..Its mirth is boisterous. It is provincial. 1864 M. Arnold Ess. Crit. ii. (1875) 77 The provincial spirit, again, exaggerates the value of its ideas for want of a high standard at hand by which to try them. 1899 J. McCarthy Reminisc. II. xxxv. 252 Rather tall, very angular, surprisingly awkward..with a rough provincial accent and an uncouth way of speaking. 1909 A. W. Evans tr. A. France's Penguin Island vii. ix. 312 Provincial women, since they wear low heels, are not very attractive, and preserve their virtue with ease. 1954 C. S. Lewis Eng. Lit. in 16th Cent. i. i. 68 Scotch poetry had already a considerable achievement behind it and was by no means a local or provincial department of English poetry. |
6. Provincial Letters, the collection of letters of Blaise Pascal 1656–7, called (in ed. 1657) Les Provinciales, ou les Lettres écrites par Louis de Montalte, à un Provincial de ses Amis, letters written by L. de M. to a provincial of (= among) his friends.
| 1659 (title) An answer to the Provinciall Letters [of B. Pascal] Published by the Jansenists, Under the Name of Lewis Montalt. 1845 Maurice Mor. & Met. Philos. in Encycl. Metrop. II. 658/1 Whether there may not be something in the Provincial Letters of that very spirit which they are attacking. |
† 7. a. = Proven{cced}al. Obs.
| c 1440 Pallad. on Husb. iii. 309 A dight vine in prouyntial manere That lyke a busshe vpstont. |
b. Consisting of or designating a Provins (or ‘province’) rose (= ‘Rose de Provence, the Province Rose, the double Damaske Rose’, Cotgrave; Rosa provincialis, Gerarde's Herbal, 1597). Obs.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. ii. 288 Would not this Sir, and a Forrest of Feathers,..with two Prouinciall Roses on my rac'd Shooes, get me a Fellowship in a crie of Players? 1633 Ford Broken H. i. ii, That I myself..have wrought To crown thy temples, this Provincial garland. |
B. n. [Absolute or elliptical uses of the adj.]
† 1. A variety of the game of backgammon. Obs.
| 13.. MS. Kings 13 A. XVIII (Brit. Mus.) lf. 159/1 Prouincial. Est etiam alius ludus qui vocatur prouincial. |
2. a. Eccl. The ecclesiastical head of a province; the chief of a religious order in a district or province.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. viii. 178 A powhe ful [v.r. pokeful] of pardoun þer with Prouincials lettres. c 1380 Antecrist in Todd 3 Treat. Wyclif 125 To abbotes & priours, mynistris & wardeyns, & to þise provynciales & to þe popes chapileyns. 1412 in Laing Charters (1899) 24 Frere Willyam Cokar, than beande prouincial of the Quite Freris of Scotlande. 1534 Lee in Lett. Suppress. Monasteries (Camden) 41 We receyved your lettres by the provynciall of the Augustyn ffriers. 1599 Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 69 These Generalls have under them their Provincialls as Lievtenants in every Province or State of Christendome. 1718 Entertainer No. 32. 215 A Hooker in his Country Cottage may be as upright and conscientious as his Provincial invested with his Pastoral Staff. 1839 Penny Cycl. XIII. 111/2 The general [of the Jesuits] receives monthly reports from the provincials, and quarterly ones from the superiors of professed houses. 1916 Joyce Portrait of Artist (1969) 48 If the minister did it he would go to the rector: and the rector to the provincial: and the provincial to the general of the jesuits. 1960 [see definitory n.]. 1973 Franciscan XV. 168 The Community Retreat conducted by Brother Luke, the American Provincial. |
† b. Applied to a procuress (cf. F. abbesse). Obs. slang.
| c 1640 [Shirley] Capt. Underwit iii. i, New yeares guifts From soder'd virgins and their shee provintialls Whose warren must be licenc'd from our office. |
† 3. The governor of a province. Obs.
| 1590 R. Hichcock Quintess. Wit 59 Those Cities which are vsed to liue free, or accustomed to gouerne themselues by their Prouincialls. 1593 Nashe Christ's T. (1613) 77 Thou suffredst him..to resist the Romane Prouinciall Florus. |
4. a. A native or inhabitant of a province (Roman or modern); in pl. auxiliary troops raised in a province; formerly applied to the native Irish.
| 1605 Camden Rem. (1657) 54 They took Roman names when they were provincials. 1617 Moryson Itin. ii. 118 (Rebell. Earl of Tyrone) So as if the Spaniards should land the Lord President might be enabled to keepe the Prouincials from reuolt. Ibid. 274 Lord Barry with 1600 Prouincials vnder him. a 1638 Mede Wks. (1672) 674 The Inhabitants of Arabia Petræa, which were never yet Provincials of the Turkish Empire. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xxii. (1869) I. 615 The grateful provincials enjoyed the blessings of his reign. 1808 Pike Sources Mississ. iii. (1810) 268 To be sent to America..to discipline and organize the Spanish provincials. 1907 G. John Voice fr. China xi. 245 Mr. Peng was..like most of his fellow provincials bitterly anti-foreign. |
b. An inhabitant of the North American Colonies before the revolution; applied esp. to those engaged in military service. Cf. A. 2 b.
| 1758 Hist. in Ann. Reg. 72/2 He embarked upon Lake George with near 16000 troops, regulars and provincials. 1759 Ibid. 33/2 The French..collected all the regular troops and provincials, which they could draw from all their posts about the lakes. 1775 M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) I. 49 We obtained an exact account of the number of Provincials that were killed and wounded in the battle [of Lexington] of the 19th ultimo. 1876 Bancroft Hist. U.S. III. xiii. 196 Nine thousand and twenty-four provincials, from New England, New York, and New Jersey, assembled on the shore of Lake George. |
c. In Canada: a member of a provincial police force.
| 1936 W. B. Mowery Paradise Trail 4 On his flight across the provinces he had..slipped out of several tight squeezes with the Provincials. 1952 H. Garner Yellow Sweater 143 One of the Provincials took me upstairs. 1963 J. N. Harris Weird World Wes Beattie xi. 137 The provincials were extremely dubious about trying to find a weapon in the depths of Lake Muskoka in March. |
5. One who dwells in or comes from the ‘provinces’ as distinguished from an inhabitant or native of the capital; hence, a ‘countrified’ person.
| 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) II. ii. ii. i. 133 This we may observe in the hardy remote Provincials. 1775 T. Sheridan Art Reading p. x, By the aid of which all foreigners and provincials may..acquire a just pronunciation. 1843 tr. Custine's Empire of Czar II. 153 On the same principle that, in France, the Provincial distrusts the Parisian. 1865 Lowell New Eng. Two Cent. Ago Prose Wks. 1890 II. 73 After that time they sank rapidly into provincials, narrow in thought, in culture, in creed. 1913 C. Mackenzie Sinister St. I. ii. v. 210 She used to laugh and tell him he was a regular old ‘provincial’. 1954 C. S. Lewis Eng. Lit. in 16th Cent. i. i. 83 Until we have trained ourselves to feel that ‘gudeman’ is no more rustic or homely than ‘husband’ we are no judges of Douglas as a translator of Virgil. If we fail in the training, then it is we and not the poet who are provincials. |
† 6. An ordinance of a provincial synod; also, a rescript addressed to an ecclesiastical province. Obs.
| a 1529 Skelton Ware the Hawke 133 Decrees or decretals..Or els provincials. 1605 Camden Rem. i. 5 And the Kings of Scotland, as appeereth in an antient Roman Provinciall, had next place before Castile. 1659 H. L'Estrange Alliance Div. Off. 317 Considering that Provincial in Lindwood, where the Arch-Deacons are enjoyned in their visitations, diligently to take into their care..the fabrique of the Church. |
† 7. A provincial synod: cf. province 3. Obs.
| 1637–50 Row Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.) 25 A partie conceaveing himself wronged by a session, may appeall to the Provinciall and Superintendent, (Presbyteries were not as yit erected). 1643 R. Baillie Lett. & Jrnls. (1841) II. 70 At our last Provinciall in Glasgow we resolved to be no longer silent. 1654 Lamont Diary (Maitl. Cl.) 81 The fast (appointed by the prouinciall of Fyfe, at Kirkekaldie, 1654). |
† 8. A kind of lizard. Obs. rare.
| 1575 Turberv. Falconrie 301 Take the dung of a Lyzart, (which is called a Provinciall) and beate it into powder. |
9. In other elliptical uses: e.g. a provincial newspaper.
| 1892 Pall Mall G. 7 Apr. 2/1 All four men included here are commonly given a full report in the Times, and on first-class occasions a full report in the greater provincials. 1961 Listener 31 Aug. 325/1 His thoughts about Beckford and Beckett, Jouhandeau and Camus, the anti⁓roman and the English provincials. 1973 Times 2 July 15/6 The London papers stood out for a long time after the provincials had joined with him. |