pragmatIc, pragmaticke

& s. [Fr. pragmatique, from Lat. pragmatic us; Greek prag matikos = skilled in affairs; pragma (gen it. prag matos ) = a deed; pra o = to do; Sp. pragmatico; Ital. pram matico. ] A. As adj .: Pragmatical. B. As substantive: 1. One who is versed or busy in affairs. 2. A solemn ordinance or decree, emanating from the head of a state. ( Clarendon : Religion & Policy , ch. iv.) pragmatic-history, s . A history which exhibits clearly the causes and the consequences of events. pragmatic-sanction, s . Civil Law : A rescript or answer of the sovereign delivered by advice of his council to some college, order, or body of people, on any case of their community. By the French the term was appropriated to certain statutes limiting the jurisdiction of the pope, as in A. D. 1268 and 1438. Pope Leo X., in 1545, persuaded Francis I. to exchange them for a concordat. Generally it is applied to an ordinance fixing the succe ion to a throne in a certain line. Thus, by the Pragmatic Sanction of Germany in 1439, the succe ion of the empire was made hereditary in the house of Austria, and in 1724 the Emperor Charles Vl., being without male i ue, published another, settling the succe ion upon his daughter, Maria Teresa and her i ue. Pragmatic sanctions were also published by Charles IV., ruler of the two Sicilies, in 1759, and by Ferdinand, king of Spain, in 1830. IMG:content-1431.png:[blocks in formation] chin, bench; go, gem; thin, this; *2. Versed or skilled in affairs; skilled in busine . 3. Given or inclined to interfering or meddling in the affairs of others; meddlesome; impertinently curious as to the affairs of others; officious. *4. Characterized by meddlesomene or officiousne ; impertinent. "A pragmatical impertinence in meddling with the concerns and characters of other people." -Jortin: Dis sert. 3. *5. Of or pertaining to busine or ordinary affairs; hence, material. prăg-mắt-Ic-al-ly, adv . [Eng. pragmatical ; ly . ] In a pragmatical or meddlesome manner; impertinently; officiously. prăg-mat-Ic-al-ne , s . [Eng. pragmatical ; -ne . The quality or state of being pragmatical; meddlesomene , of i cio us ne . prăg-ma-tişm, 8. [PRAGMATIC.] 1. The quality or state of being pragmatic; prag. maticalne . "The shallow pragmatism of customers."-G. Eliot: Middle march, ch. lxxi. 2. A mode of treating history, in which the narration of events is accompanied by a view of the causes and effects. prăg-ma-tist, s. [PRAGMATIC.] One who is officiously or impertinently busy in the affairs of others; a pragmatic. "We may say of pragmatists that their eyes look all ways but inward."-Reynolds: On the Pa ions, ch. xvi. prăg-ma-tize, v . t . & i . [PRAGMATIC.] To materialize; spec if. to treat metaphor as if it embod ied an actual fact.