straitlaced (2009-11-01)

Part of Speech: adjective

Pronunciation: ['streyt-leyst]

Definition: (1) Wearing a garment that is tightly laced up; (2) excessively conservative in opinion and behavior, very prudish, priggish.

Usage: Today's word is probably applied most often to women, "My sister is so strait-laced she won't let her teenage sons eat Lady Godiva chocolates." But "straitlaced" is an equal opportunity word, so feel free to apply it ambisexually, "Her straitlaced husband won't even go out on the beach without a tie and jacket." You can even try it asexually, "I work in a straitlaced office where the men's cubicles are on one side of the building and the women's are on the other."

Suggested Usage: Today's is yet another example of a word gone astray in our language. It has now been misspelled "straight-laced" for so long that this spelling is now accepted everywhere. The adverb, though rarely used, is "straitlacedly" while the noun is "straitlacedness" (with or without the hyphen). Be careful when you try to amaze your friends and colleagues with the correct spelling of this word that you are not taken as an illiterate yourself. (Just print out a copy of today's word to take with you.)

Etymology: The first component of today's word was originally Middle English streit "narrow, narrows" from Old French estreit "tight, narrow." The Old French word was the natural descendant of Latin strictus, the past participle of stringere "to draw tight." The spelling indicates that "strait" in compounds is another victim of folk etymology. When "tight" replaced "strait" as an individual word, the original was left behind in compound nouns, so speakers began looking for a similar word to replace it in compounds, "straight" being the logical choice. It has not been changed in "straits," as in the Straits of Gibraltar," though it is creeping into "straitjacket." "Strait," is a distant cousin of "stringent" and "strict" and would seem to be unrelated to "straight."