Linguistic Purism

Abstract

The term “purism” (from the Latin purus “pure”) refers to an oversensitivity to purity. Such an oversensitivity might manifest itself in sports, in a certain doctrine, or in literature, art, or language. A sporting purist, for instance, might refuse to recognize any disciplines other than those once practiced by the ancient Greeks. A doctrinal purist will doggedly defend the first principles of his or her particular doctrine, no matter how they actually function in today’s world. A purist critic will rip to shreds any work whose creator dares to cross different styles or genres. And a linguistic purist will cry: “Down with all borrowings, neologisms, colloquialisms!” – railing against anything he or she feels to be undesirable, polluting the language’s purity.