Definition of "purism" [pur•ism]

• Strict observance of or insistence on traditional correctness, especially of language: "By purism is to be understood a needless and irritating insistence on purity or correctness of speech” ( H.W. Fowler). (noun)
• An example of purism. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Let's not get too wrapped up in purism to be pragmaticThey party should get control of this and put up a winner, Hillary."
• "I work out my sexual frustration by going to the utmost extreme in Icelandic purism."
• "Such a doctrine is a doctrine of puritanism -- or purism, which is worse."