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straight-laced

adj

Etymology

Widely agreed to have originated (centuries ago) in homophonic confusion (in speech) of strait-laced (“tight-laced”), but long since so widely accepted and used, because having such strongly apparent analogy with straight in its senses relating to orthodoxy and conformity (compare squareness), that it can no longer accurately be called erroneous; instead it is an established alternative form with its own reanalyzed surface analysis. Compare straitjacket with *straightjacket; the latter is still usually regarded as an error, but the relationship is analogous.

Definitions

  1. Having narrow views on moral matters

    Having narrow views on moral matters; prudish.

    • Me thinks St. Augustin was too straight-laced in not liking Organs in Churches.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at straight-laced. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01straight-laced02matters03matter04approximate05close06block07approximately08imprecise09precise10prim

A definitional loop anchored at straight-laced. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at straight-laced

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA