pristine
adjective
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When pristine was anglicized in the 16th century, people borrowed the meanings of "early" and "original" from the Latin word pristinus and applied those meanings to what is desirable as well as to what is not. But it has long been a tendency of civilized people to admire a simpler and unsullied past. The supposition is that when things were in their oldest or original state, they were better. Thus, pristine was extended to describe the notion of an unspoiled, uncorrupted, or unpolluted state. And what is unspoiled or uncontaminated may connote the freshness and cleanness of something that has just been made, which explains how pristine has also come to mean "fresh and clean."
Examples of pristine in a Sentence
Richard Green, Space.com, 10 Aug. 2025
My desks and tables are littered with stray sheets of paper and an explosion of notebooks, some pristine, some half full, most somewhere in between.
—Dan Rockmore, New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2025
But while most celebrities who tote around the Kelly — or its sibling, the Birkin — keep their bags pristine, Moss took a different approach.
—Leah Dolan, CNN Money, 7 Aug. 2025
On Monday, Transportation Security Administration agents stood at their posts in the pristine, people-free screening area.
—Elizabeth Hernandez, Denver Post, 4 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for pristine
Cite this Entry
“Pristine.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pristine. Accessed 29 Aug. 2025.
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pristine
adjective
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