provincial
see also: Provincial
Etymology

From Old French provincial, from Latin provincialis, equivalent to province + -ial.

Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /pɹəˈvɪn(t)ʃəl/
  • (America) IPA: /pɹəˈvɪnt͡ʃəl/
Adjective

provincial

  1. Of or pertaining to a province.
    a provincial government
    a provincial dialect
  2. Constituting a province.
  3. Exhibiting the ways or manners of a province; characteristic of the inhabitants of a province.
    • 1856 December, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Samuel Johnson”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC ↗:
      […] fond of exhibiting provincial airs and graces.
  4. Not cosmopolitan; backwoodsy, hick, yokelish, countrified; not polished; rude
    • 2011, KD McCrite, In Front of God and Everybody:
      That awful little Cedar Whatever is no thriving megalopolis, and you people are so provincial, it's appalling.
  5. Narrow; illiberal.
  6. Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical province, or to the jurisdiction of an archbishop; not ecumenical.
    a provincial synod
  7. Limited in outlook; narrow.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Noun

provincial (plural provincials)

  1. A person belonging to a province; one who is provincial.
  2. (Roman Catholicism) A monastic superior, who, under the general of his order, has the direction of all the religious houses of the same fraternity in a given district, called a province of the order.
    • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 700:
      The Franciscan provincial Diego de Landa set up a local Inquisition which unleashed a campaign of interrogation and torture on the Indio population.
  3. (obsolete) A constitution issued by the head of an ecclesiastical province.
    • c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC ↗, page 65, lines 130–135:
      Or els is thys Goddis law,
      Decrees or decretals,
      Or holy sinodals,
      Or els provincyals,
      Thus within the wals
      Of holy church to deale  […]?
  4. A country bumpkin.

Provincial
Adjective

provincial (not comparable)

  1. (obsolete) Of or pertaining to Provence; Provençal.
    • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:
      With two Provincial roses on my razed shoes.



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