PRAGMATIC • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Pragmatic

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/prægmˈætɪk/ Listen

adjective

Pragmatical, Pragmatic adj.

1.

Of or pertaining to business or to affairs; of the nature of business; practical; material; businesslike in habit or manner. "The next day... I began to be very pragmatical." "We can not always be contemplative, diligent, or pragmatical, abroad; but have need of some delightful intermissions." "Low, pragmatical, earthly views of the gospel."

2.

Busy; specifically, busy in an objectionable way; officious; fussy and positive; meddlesome. "Pragmatical officers of justice." "The fellow grew so pragmatical that he took upon him the government of my whole family."

3.

Philosophical; dealing with causes, reasons, and effects, rather than with details and circumstances; said of literature. "Pragmatic history." "Pragmatic poetry."

Pragmatic sanction, a solemn ordinance or decree issued by the head or legislature of a state upon weighty matters; a term derived from the Byzantine empire. In European history, two decrees under this name are particularly celebrated. One of these, issued by Charles VII. of France, A. D. 1438, was the foundation of the liberties of the Gallican church; the other, issued by Charles VI. of Germany, A. D. 1724, settled his hereditary dominions on his eldest daughter, the Archduchess Maria Theresa.

noun

Pragmatic n.

1.

One skilled in affairs. "My attorney and solicitor too; a fine pragmatic."

2.

A solemn public ordinance or decree. "A royal pragmatic was accordingly passed."

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Etymology of 'Pragmatic'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pragmatic" Quotes from Famous Books

... The pragmatic value of this idea is that it introduces a much needed refinement into the ancient controversy about nature and nurture, innate quality and environment. For the pseudo-environment is a hybrid compounded ...

— Public Opinion • Walter Lippmann

... money in his purse, in order to indulge himself "a little the more in pleasure, knowing that this is the proper age to do it." From Milton and the Earl of Clarendon to William Pitt, England was no country of lost causes and impossible enthusiasms. It was a pragmatic age, in which the scientific discoveries of Newton are the highest intellectual achievement, and the conclusion of Pope that "everything that is is best" gives the quality of ...

— Beginnings of the American People • Carl Lotus Becker

... of the extent and variety of information which a librarian is supposed to possess, I have been asked, almost at the same time, to refer a reader to the origin of Candlemas day, to define the Pragmatic Sanction, to give, out of hand, the aggregate wealth of Great Britain, compared with that of half-a-dozen other nations, to define the limits of neutrality or belligerent rights, to explain what is meant by the Gresham law, to tell what ship has made the quickest voyage ...

— A Book for All Readers • Ainsworth Rand Spofford

... Pragmatism came to the rescue from the philosophical camp; but the assault was but a very short one; since, tested by Pragmatic methods (that is, the testing of the truth of a religion by its appeal to human consciousness), if one fact stood out luminous and undisputed, it was that the Catholic Religion, with its eternal appeal in every century and to every type ...

— Dawn of All • Robert Hugh Benson

... inducement in her power to the Emperor Charles the Sixth and to Russia to enter into a combination against France and England. The Emperor was without a son, and, in consequence, had issued his famous Pragmatic Sanction, providing that his hereditary dominions in Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia should descend to his daughter Maria Theresa. The great Powers of Europe had not as yet seen fit to guarantee, or even recognize, ...

— A History of the Four Georges, Volume I (of 4) • Justin McCarthy

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