pristine
adjective
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When pristine was anglicized in the 16th century, people borrowed the meanings of "early" and "original" from the Latin word pristinus and applied those meanings to what is desirable as well as to what is not. But it has long been a tendency of civilized people to admire a simpler and unsullied past. The supposition is that when things were in their oldest or original state, they were better. Thus, pristine was extended to describe the notion of an unspoiled, uncorrupted, or unpolluted state. And what is unspoiled or uncontaminated may connote the freshness and cleanness of something that has just been made, which explains how pristine has also come to mean "fresh and clean."
Examples of pristine in a Sentence
Eve Glover, Fox News, 26 Jan. 2025
Getaway Enjoy the Outdoors Hit the Beach With 2.5 miles of Atlantic Ocean-fronting shoreline, Sullivan’s Island’s main draw is its pristine shoreline, a wide sandy stretch prime for sandcastle-building and sunbathing.
—Betsy Cribb Watson, Southern Living, 25 Jan. 2025
From pristine beaches in Indonesia to a Buddhist pilgrimage trail in Bhutan, here are 6 luxurious Asian escapes to commemorate Year of the Snake.
—Passport By Forbeslife, Forbes, 24 Jan. 2025
Based on that website, even a pristine, late-model iPhone would only net someone a couple hundred dollars.
—Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 23 Jan. 2025
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Dictionary Entries Near pristine
Cite this Entry
“Pristine.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pristine. Accessed 30 Jan. 2025.
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pristine
adjective
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