All 4 Uses of
provincial
in
The Mill on the Floss
- In old-fashioned times an "independence" was hardly ever made without a little miserliness as a condition, and you would have found that quality in every provincial district, combined with characters as various as the fruits from which we can extract acid.†
Chpt 1.12
- This had always been a principle in the Dodson family; it was one form if that sense of honor and rectitude which was a proud tradition in such families,—a tradition which has been the salt of our provincial society.†
Chpt 1.13
- But nothing could make life worth the purchase-money of pain to me, but some faculty that would lift me above the dead level of provincial existence.†
Chpt 5.3 *
- She had been hearing some fine music sung by a fine bass voice,—but then it was sung in a provincial, amateur fashion, such as would have left a critical ear much to desire.†
Chpt 6.3
Definitions:
-
(1)
(provincial as in: provincial attitude) unsophisticated (meant disapprovingly to refer to old-fashioned or narrow-minded attitudes and ideas)
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Provincial can also mean "related to a province" or "related to the provinces." Its more literary meaning of unsophisticated originated as a pejorative term for ideas held in the provinces that were considered old-fashioned or uninformed by many who lived in the capital city.