Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

straight-laced

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.28 in modern English

Syllables: straight-laced
IPA

20

Scrabble Score

13

Letters

2

Syllables

11

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Having narrow views on moral matters; prudish.

Example Sentences

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

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.

Inflected Forms

more straight-laced (comparative) straighter-laced (comparative) most straight-laced (superlative) straightest-laced (superlative) straightlaced (alternative) strait-laced (alternative) straitlaced (alternative)

Synonyms

tight-laced stuffy priggish prim prissy prudish puritanical square-toed straitlaced strait-laced straightlaced victorian

Questions

What does straight-laced mean?: Having narrow views on moral matters; prudish.
Where does straight-laced come from?: 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.

How to pronounce straight-laced

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