pristine

From Middle French pristin, borrowed from Latin pristinus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɪstiːn/, /pɹɪsˈtiːn/, /pɹɪsˈtaɪn/

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• Rhymes: -iːn, -aɪn

pristine (comparative more pristine, superlative most pristine)

1. Unspoiled; still with its original purity; uncorrupted or unsullied.
2. Primitive, pertaining to the earliest state of something.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292:

     Thus fable reports that the fair Grimalkin, whom Venus, at the desire of a passionate lover, converted from a cat into a fine woman, no sooner perceived a mouse than, mindful of her former sport, and still retaining her pristine nature, she leaped from the bed of her husband to pursue the little animal.

3. Perfect.

From Ancient Greek πρίστης (prístēs, “a saw, one that saws”)

• Rhymes: -aɪn

pristine (comparative more pristine, superlative most pristine)

1. Relating to sawfishes of the family Pristidae.
   • 2008, J.M. Whitty, N.M. Phillips, D.L. Morgan, J.A. Chaplin, D.C. Thorburn & S.C. Peverell, Habitat associations of Freshwater Sawfish (Pristis microdon)and Northern River Sharks (Glyphis sp. C): including genetic analysis of P. microdon across northern Australia

     This indicates that the present levels of genetic diversity in P. microdon are not unusually low, although the amount of diversity to be expected in pristine populations of coastal species of elasmobranch remains elusive because all populations investigated to date have suffered some degree of decline (e.g. Sandoval-Castillo et al. 2004, Keeney et al. 2005, Hoelzel et al. 2006, Stow et al. 2006, Lewallen et al. 2007).

• Petrinis, spiriten

prīstine

1. vocative masculine singular of prīstinus