provincial

From Middle English provincial, from Old French provincial, from Latin prōvinciālis (“of a province”), equivalent to province +‎ -ial.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /pɹəˈvɪn(t)ʃəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

provincial (comparative more provincial, superlative most provincial)

1. Of or pertaining to a province.

   a provincial government

   a provincial dialect

2. Constituting a province.
3. Exhibiting the ways or manners of a province; characteristic of the inhabitants of a province.
   • 1856 December, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Samuel Johnson”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC:

     […] fond of exhibiting provincial airs and graces.

4. Not cosmopolitan; backwoodsy, hick, yokelish, countrified; not polished; rude
   • 2011, KD McCrite, In Front of God and Everybody:

     That awful little Cedar Whatever is no thriving megalopolis, and you people are so provincial, it's appalling.

5. Narrow; illiberal.
6. Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical province, or to the jurisdiction of an archbishop; not ecumenical.

   a provincial synod

7. Limited in outlook; narrow.

• rural

provincial (plural provincials)

1. A person belonging to a province; one who is provincial.
3. (Roman Catholicism) A monastic superior, who, under the general of his order, has the direction of all the religious houses of the same fraternity in a given district, called a province of the order.
   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 700:

     The Franciscan provincial Diego de Landa set up a local Inquisition which unleashed a campaign of interrogation and torture on the Indio population.

4. (obsolete) A constitution issued by the head of an ecclesiastical province.
   • c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 65, lines 130–135:

     Or els is thys Goddis law,
     Decrees or decretals,
     Or holy sinodals,
     Or els provincyals,
     Thus within the wals
     Of holy church to deale  […]?

5. A country bumpkin.

Borrowed from Latin prōvinciālis. First attested in 1653.^[1]

• IPA^(key): (Central) [pɾu.βin.siˈal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [pɾo.vin.siˈal]
• Rhymes: -al

provincial m or f (masculine and feminine plural provincials)

1. provincial

• provincialisme

• província

• “provincial”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “provincial” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “provincial” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Learned borrowing from Latin provinciālis. By surface analysis, province +‎ -ial. Compare provençal.

• IPA^(key): /pʁɔ.vɛ̃.sjal/

• Audio:

  (file)

provincial (feminine provinciale, masculine plural provinciaux, feminine plural provinciales)

1. provincial

• provincialement
• provincialisme

provincial m (plural provinciaux, feminine provinciale)

1. person from the provinces/regions

• “provincial”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Latin prōvinciālis. First attested in the 13th century.^[1]

provincial m (feminine singular provinciala, masculine plural provincials, feminine plural provincialas)

1. provincial

• provincialisme

• província

• Joan de Cantalausa (2006) Diccionari general occitan a partir dels parlars lengadocians‎^[1], 2 edition, →ISBN, page 789.

• IPA^(key): /pruviŋˈt͡ʃal/

provincial

1. provincial

From Latin prōvinciālis.

provincial m or f (plural provinciais)

1. provincial

• provincialismo

• província
• provinciano

Borrowed from Latin provincialis. By surface analysis, provincie +‎ -al.

• IPA^(key): /pro.vin.t͡ʃiˈal/

provincial m (plural provinciali)

1. provincial

• provincialism

From Latin prōvinciālis.

• IPA^(key): /pɾobinˈθjal/ [pɾo.β̞ĩn̟ˈθjal] (Spain)
• IPA^(key): /pɾobinˈsjal/ [pɾo.β̞ĩnˈsjal] (Latin America, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: pro‧vin‧cial

provincial m or f (masculine and feminine plural provinciales)

1. provincial

• “provincial”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024