Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Purism \Pur"ism\, n. [Cf. F. purisme.]
   Rigid purity; the quality of being affectedly pure or nice,
   especially in the choice of language; over-solicitude as to
   purity. ``His political purism.'' --De Quincey.

         The English language, however, . . . had even already
         become too thoroughly and essentially a mixed tongue
         for his doctrine of purism to be admitted to the
         letter.                                  --Craik.