A.Word.A.Day --straitlaced

A.Word.A.Day

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Jan 20, 2016

This week’s theme
Clothing terms used metaphorically

This week’s words
brass hat
sackcloth
straitlaced
sansculotte
bootleg

“Fashion before Ease - or - A good Constitution sacrificed for a Fantastick Form”
Thomas Paine tightening Britannia’s laces

Cartoon: James Gillray, 1793 (LOC)

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

straitlaced or straight-laced

PRONUNCIATION:

(STRAYT-layst)

MEANING:

adjective: Excessively strict, rigid, old-fashioned, or prudish.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Middle English streit (narrow), from Old French estreit, from Latin strictus, past participle of stringere (to bind, draw tight) + laqueus (noose). Earliest documented use: 1630.

USAGE:

“Aren’t they the rather dull, unimaginative, straitlaced characters who keep their noses constantly buried in rule books?”
Your Stars; The Gold Coast Bulletin (Southport, Australia); Oct 13, 2015.

See more usage examples of straitlaced in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster's autobiography. -Federico Fellini, film director, and writer (20 Jan 1920-1993)

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