Etymology

puritan

pu·ri·tan
P3U1R1I1T1A1N1

Today it means: A puritanical person. Full definition →

English purity ← Middle English pure ← Old French pur
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puritan · noun, adjective1

See Puritan.

Puritan · noun, adjective2

  1. Proto-Indo-European*pewH-
  2. Proto-Italic*pūros
  3. Latinpūrus
  4. Old Frenchpur
  5. Middle Englishpure
  6. Englishpure
  7. Englishpurity
  8. English todayPuritan

Probably from purity + -an, because they sought to purify Church of England worship of what they perceived as Roman Catholic aspects. The capitalised form preceded the lowercase form puritan.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.