Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An outlying or neighboring area.
- n. Outskirts; the environs.
- n. A place that one frequents.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Land added to a royal forest by unlawful encroachment, but afterward disafforested, and restored to the former owners, its bounds and extent being settled by perambulation.
- n. plural The borders or environs of any place; the outskirts; outlying places: as, the purlieus of Paris.
Wiktionary
- n. historical The ground on the edges of a forest, especially when partly subject to the same forest laws concerning game hunting etc.
- n. The outskirts of any place; an adjacent district; the environs or neighborhood.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Originally, the ground near a royal forest, which, having been unlawfully added to the forest, was afterwards severed from it, and disafforested so as to remit to the former owners their rights.
- n. Hence, the outer portion of any place; an adjacent district; environs; neighborhood.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an outer adjacent area of any place
Etymologies
- From Anglo-Norman puralee, puralé et al. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English purlewe, piece of land on the edge of a forest, probably alteration (influenced by Old French lieu, place) of porale, purale, royal perambulation, from Old French porale, from poraler, to traverse : por-, forth (from Latin prō-; see pro-1) + aler, aller, to go; see alley1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It is remarkable that the term purlieu is never once mentioned in this long roll of parchment.”
“A purlieu is a familiar or outlying place; a purview is a range or scope.”
“Stuck with his family in a purlieu of Rome densely populated by other displaced Jews, he immerses himself in his memories, which include seeing his father murdered by Cossacks and, just as hauntingly, informing on his cousin for Zionist activity.”
“Even in the darkest purlieu of Morocco's underworld," Eberhardt writes, "such men can reach the magic horizon where they are free to build their dream-palaces of delight.”
“Carmine stood listening to the sound of his footsteps retreating down the hall, and prayed that his most beloved friend would chance upon a greener feminine field in his own purlieu.”
“As a purlieu hunter, I have hitherto beaten about the circuit of the forest of this microcosm, and followed only those outward adventitious causes.”
“Antony asked, relieved to discuss something inarguably in his purlieu.”
“Having sent in his card, he waited a long while in that lofty purlieu.”
“Sir Everard Powell was there in his bath-chair at twelve, with a doctor on one side of him and a friend on the other, in some purlieu of the House, and did his duty like a fine old Briton as he was.”
“We were often crossing it on one errand or other, but now we were especially going to see the gipsy quarter of Seville, which disputes with that of Granada the infamy of the loathsomest purlieu imaginable.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘purlieu’.
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250 More Spelling Words
More words for intermediate and advanced spellers.
melisma, dioecious, jejunity, sialogogue, zingiber, zendik, dithyramb, pneuma, kachina, agiotage, baedeker, sabulous and 238 more...
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New words
new words or spelling issues
voluble, Metagrobolize, salubrious, calumny, fugacity, withdrawal, bourse, hypertrophy, leitmotif, argot, improvident, damask and 238 more...
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phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pabouche, pabulous, pabulum, pacable, pace, pachydermia, pachyglossal, pachymeter, pachynsis, paciferous, pacificate, pactolian and 1766 more...
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Words from Blood Meridian
visage, affray, scullery, miasma, mirth, purlieu, tacit, benighted, wickiup, corral, amble, accoutre and 210 more...
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briwref's list
defalcation, macerate, beldam, nescience, ochlocracy, bibelot, estivate, spatulated, introversive, mastoidal, belletristic, objurgation and 108 more...
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Thresholds
we are all just passing through.
(boundaries, portals and liminal spaces/times)cockcrow, interface, thin line, portal, postern, littoral, portico, porch, stoop, strand, liminal, limen and 304 more...
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Ballardian
All things descriptive from JG
Ballardoperation mindfuck, pataphysics, wahrheitssensible..., polymorphism, postprandial, covalent, stygian, lucus a non lucendo, kafkaesque, leitmotif, fugacious, ablate and 77 more...
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ecbatic's list
woofits, concierge, winsome, garish, cognate, peevish, oodles, undulate, fodder, nonpareil, reticulated, gabulous and 13 more...
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Open List: SUGGESTIONS FOR THE UNDERS...
Recruiting all Wordieniks to introduce me to their best word friends!! If words were people, this is the list for ones I should meet and ones I will (hopefully) like.
gyre, penultimate, cake, schadenfreude, lacuna, skedaddle, schopfling, morphoanatomy, overscore, swasivious, brightling, phrontisserie and 17 more...
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nachchba's Words
stentorian, blasé, ennui, concinnity, melee, photokeratitis, skiffle, refulgence, mongrel, fakir, caid, eudaimonia and 215 more...
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Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young ...
These words are from Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young Lady, 1747-48
adumbrate, virago, varlet, rencounter, akimbo, palliate, amanuensis, amok, equipage, cully, se'ennight, resentments and 560 more...
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Good Words
fenestering, cetic, immanent, quickening, archetypal, shibboleth, soma, wetware, heritable, Apotheosis, halcyon, cellar door and 482 more...
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Vocabulary
Words I come across while reading.
talus, echelon, onanistic, cabochon, avocation, charnel, moue, portentous, prolixity, astringent, hoary, patina and 165 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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spread out, spacious words of spe
words pertaining to the root spe- (hope) with some allegorical liberties.
paten, pan, pass, patent, petal, expand, repand, passacaglia, passe, paseo, paella, spawn and 150 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1402 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for purlieu.
madmouth the slavish pluralizer, on the other hand, haunts the less salubrious purlieux of the city. Jun 18, 2009
bilby "So, while the crew investigated the boat and gauged the level of its picturesqueness, I haunted the less salubrious purlieus of the city, peeping in at doorways where dozens of sweating people sat entranced by 'Pane, Pane, Beijo, Beijo' or 'Louco Amor' in rooms not ten feet square, peering through the gate at the exclusive country club, so exclusive indeed that it appeared to be derelict, always coming back to the market, where it seemed to me I could see athwart the economic reality of life in the interior."
- 'The São Francisco', Germaine Greer in The Madwoman's Underclothes. Sep 1, 2008