precisian
(prɪˈsɪʒən)
Also 6 pri-, 6–7 præ-; 6 -cisean, -sician, 6–7 -cision, 7 -sisian.
[f. precise a. + -ian, after Christian, etc.]
One who is rigidly precise or punctilious in the observance of rules or forms. a. spec. One who is precise in religious observance: in the 16th and 17th c. synonymous with Puritan.
| 1571 Abp. Parker Corr. (Parker Soc.) 377 That inconvenience that Mr. Mullyns..should openly tell the precisians that her Highness' sword should be compelled to cut off this stubborn multitude. 1572 J. Jones Bathes of Bath iii. 24 The Puritanes, but better we may terme them piuish precisians. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 112 These presicians would haue all things remoued out of the Church which haue beene abused to Idolatrie. 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. iii. ii, He's no precisian, that I'm certain of, Nor rigid Roman Catholic:..I haue heard him swear. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. vi. 94 Like our Precisions..Who for some Crosse or Saint they in the window see Will pluck downe all the Church. a 1652 Brome Eng. Moor v. iii, Forgiv' me for swearing, and turn Precisian, and pray I' the nose that all my brethren..spend no worse. 1725 Watts Logic i. vi. §3 A profane person calls a man of piety a precisian. 1821 Scott Kenilw. vii, Here is what neither Papist nor Puritan, latitudinarian nor precisian, ever boggles or makes mouths at. 1893 Fowler Hist. C.C.C. (O.H.S.) 137 Precisian as Cole was, he does not seem to have objected to card-playing. |
b. Generally; or in some sphere of practice.
| [1598 Shakes. Merry W. ii. i. 5 Though Loue vse Reason for his precisian, hee admits him not for his Counsailour.] 1755 Johnson, Precisian, i. One who limits or restrains. 1834 Southey Doctor liii. (1862) 120 A man may dwell upon words till he becomes at length a mere precisian in speech. 1862 Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) VII. lxii. 388 He went over to the Stoics, set up for an austere precisian, and a professed opponent of the..government. 1881 Gd. Words XXII. 71 A precisian desires specific rules. 1894 Grahame Pagan 46 A formal precisian..during business hours. |
c. attrib. or as adj.
| 1616 T. Adams Contempl. Herbs Wks. 1862 II. 465 A wicked politician in a ruff of precisian set. 1651 Biggs New Disp. §18 Like the dull præcisian pædagogues to the ferulæ and pedantick Tyranny of the Stagirite. a 1882 Sat. Rev. (Annandale), A martyr to the political strategy of a precisian government. |
Hence † precisiˈanical a. Obs., puritanical; † preˈcisianship Obs., the quality or action of being a (religious) precisian.
| 1573 Abp. Parker Corr. (Parker Soc.) 436 Their manifest precisianship is too intolerable. 1574–5 Ibid. 476 Saving for the common precisianship in London, I hear of no sects. a 1652 Brome Convent Gard. i. i. Wks. 1873 II. 7 And what of that in your precisianical wisdom? |