Part 628

Prov"i*dent*ly (?), adv. In a provident manner.

Prov"i*dent*ness, n. The quality or state of being provident; carefulness; prudence; economy.

Pro*vid"er (?), n. One who provides, furnishes, or supplies; one who procures what is wanted.

Prov"i*dore (?), n. [See Provedore.] One who makes provision; a purveyor. [R.] De Foe.

Prov"ince (?), n. [F., fr. L. provincia; prob. fr. pro before, for + the root of vincere to conquer. See Victor.] 1. (Roman Hist.) A country or region, more or less remote from the city of Rome, brought under the Roman government; a conquered country beyond the limits of Italy. Wyclif (Acts xiii. 34). Milton.

2. A country or region dependent on a distant authority; a portion of an empire or state, esp. one remote from the capital. "Kingdoms and provinces." Shak.

3. A region of country; a tract; a district.

Over many a tract of heaven they marched, and many a province wide.

Milton.

Other provinces of the intellectual world.

I. Watts.

4. A region under the supervision or direction of any special person; the district or division of a country, especially an ecclesiastical division, over which one has jurisdiction; as, the province of Canterbury, or that in which the archbishop of Canterbury exercises ecclesiastical authority.

5. The proper or appropriate business or duty of a person or body; office; charge; jurisdiction; sphere.

The woman'sprovince is to be careful in her economy, and chaste in her affection.

Tattler.

6. Specif.: Any political division of the Dominion of Canada, having a governor, a local legislature, and representation in the Dominion parliament. Hence, colloquially, The Provinces, the Dominion of Canada.

Pro*vin"cial (?), a. [L. provincialis: cf. F. provincial. See Province, and cf. Provencal.] 1. Of or pertaining to province; constituting a province; as, a provincial government; a provincial dialect.

2. Exhibiting the ways or manners of a province; characteristic of the inhabitants of a province; not cosmopolitan; countrified; not polished; rude; hence, narrow; illiberal. "Provincial airs and graces." Macaulay.

3. Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical province, or to the jurisdiction of an archbishop; not ecumenical; as, a provincial synod. Ayliffe.

4. Of or pertaining to Provence; Provencal. [Obs.]

With two Provincial roses on my razed shoes.

Shak.

Pro*vin"cial, n. 1. A person belonging to a province; one who is provincial.

2. (R. C. Ch.) A monastic superior, who, under the general of his order, has the direction of all the religious houses of the same fraternity in a given district, called a province of the order.

Pro*vin"cial*ism (?), n. [Cf. F. provincialisme.] A word, or a manner of speaking, peculiar to a province or a district remote from the mother country or from the metropolis; a provincial characteristic; hence, narrowness; illiberality. M. Arnold.

Pro*vin"cial*ist, n. One who lives in a province; a provincial.

Pro*vin`ci*al"i*ty (?), n. The quality or state of being provincial; peculiarity of language characteristic of a province. T. Warton.

Pro*vin"cial*ize (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Provincialized (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Provincializing (?).] To render provincial. M. Arnold.