Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Characterized by appropriateness or suitability; fitting.
  • adjective Called for by rules or conventions; correct.
  • adjective Strictly following rules or conventions, especially in social behavior; seemly.
  • adjective Belonging to one; own.
  • adjective Characteristically belonging to the being or thing in question; peculiar.
  • adjective Being within the strictly limited sense, as of a term designating something.
  • adjective Ecclesiastical For use in the liturgy of a particular feast or season of the year.
  • adjective Mathematics Of or relating to a subset of a given set when the set has at least one element not in the subset.
  • adjective Worthy of the name; true.
  • adjective Out-and-out; thorough.
  • adverb Thoroughly.
  • noun The portion of the liturgy that varies according to the particular feast or season of the year.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In geometry, not figurative; not at infinity: as, proper points.
  • Special; peculiar; belonging to a species or individual and to nothing else; springing from the peculiar nature of a given species or individual; particularly suited to or befitting one's nature; natural; original.
  • Belonging to one; one's own.
  • Fit; suitable; appropriate.
  • According to recognized usage; correct; just: as, a proper word; a proper expression.
  • Rightly so called, named, or described; taken in a strict sense: in this sense usually following the noun: as, the apes proper belong to the Old World; no shell-fish are fishes proper.
  • Decent; correct in behavior; respectable; such as should be: as, proper conduct.
  • Well-formed; good-looking; personable; handsome; also, physically strong or active.
  • In heraldry, having its natural color or colors: said of any object used as a bearing: thus, a coil of rope proper is represented brown, and the spiral lines of the cordage are indicated.
  • In liturgics, used only on a particular day or festival, or during a particular octave or season: as, the proper introit; a proper preface; proper psalms.
  • Fine; pretty: said ironically of what is absurd or objectionable.
  • Becoming; deserved.
  • Synonyms Particular, individual, specific.
  • 3 and Fitting, befitting, meet, seemly, becoming, legitimate.
  • noun That which is set apart to special or individual use.
  • noun A property in the logical sense.
  • To appropriate.
  • To make proper; adorn.
  • Properly; very; exceedingly.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Belonging to one; one's own; individual.
  • adjective Belonging to the natural or essential constitution; peculiar; not common; particular.
  • adjective Befitting one's nature, qualities, etc.; suitable in all respect; appropriate; right; fit; decent
  • adjective Archaic Becoming in appearance; well formed; handsome.
  • adjective Pertaining to one of a species, but not common to the whole; not appellative; -- opposed to common
  • adjective Rightly so called; strictly considered
  • adjective (Her.) Represented in its natural color; -- said of any object used as a charge.
  • adjective [Obs.] individually; privately.
  • adjective (Bot.) one of the single florets, or corollets, in an aggregate or compound flower.
  • adjective (Arith.) a fraction in which the numerator is less than the denominator.
  • adjective (Bot.), (Gram.) a name belonging to an individual, by which it is distinguished from others of the same class; -- opposed to common noun; as, John, Boston, America.
  • adjective (Bot.) that which incloses only a single flower.
  • adjective (Bot.) a receptacle which supports only a single flower or fructification.
  • adverb Colloq & Vulgar Properly; hence, to a great degree; very.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Suitable.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English propre, from Old French, from Latin proprius; see per in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman proper, propre, Old French propre (French: propre), and their source, Latin proprius.

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Examples

  • No Tractarians proper are introduced: and this is noted in the advertisement: "No _proper_ representative is intended in this tale, of the religious opinions, which had lately so much influence in the University of Oxford."

    Apologia pro Vita Sua John Henry Newman 1845

  • For example, it is satisfied by a model in which a whole can be decomposed into several proper parts all of which overlap one another (Figure 2, right), and it may be argued that such models do not do justice to the meaning of ˜proper part™: after all, the idea is that the removal of a proper part should leave a remainder, but it is by no means clear what would be left of x once z (along with its parts) is removed.

    Wild Dreams Of Reality, 3 2009

  • As in the case of seeds, he used the term proper to bodies, saying, "it is not quickened, except it die:" so in the case of bodies, the expression belonging to seeds, saying, "it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption."

    NPNF1-12. Saint Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians Editor 1889

  • Boswell's conversation with the King about the title proper to be given to the Young Pretender.

    Life of Johnson Boswell, James, 1740-1795 1887

  • Boswell's conversation with the King about the title proper to be given to the Young Pretender.

    Life of Johnson Boswell, James, 1740-1795 1887

  • _Boswell's conversation with the King about the title proper to be given to the Young Pretender.

    Life of Johnson, Volume 6 Addenda, index, dicta philosophi, etc. James Boswell 1767

  • But he is concerned with news that bin Laden's body was buried at sea, without what he called a proper Muslim burial.

    Indonesian Fundamentalist Group Holds Prayer Service for Osama bin Laden 2011

  • U.S. officials said Wednesday they will continue to push for what they describe as proper reform.

    China Urges Respect for New Burma Government 2011

  • But he is concerned with news that bin Laden's body was buried at sea, without what he called a proper Muslim burial.

    Indonesian Fundamentalist Group Holds Prayer Service for Osama bin Laden 2011

  • When an Englishman used the word proper, he could only mean one thing—another Englishman.

    The Devil Wears Plaid Teresa Medeiros 2010

Comments

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  • "Just underground lies the examination room; beneath it, and thus outside the tower proper (for the examination room was the propulsion chamber of the original structure) stretches the labyrinth of the oubliette." -- Gene Wolfe, The Book of the New Sun

    September 25, 2008

  • IrE; In AmE this has a moralistic tone not connoted in IrE. Closest analogue in AmE is to double the word (i.e. use reduplication)

    April 20, 2011