[f. LATIN + -ISM. Cf. F. latinisme.] An idiom or form of expression characteristic of the Latin language, esp. one used by a writer in another language; conformity in style to Latin models. Also, rarely, the modes of thought characteristic of the ancient Romans.
1570. Levins, Manip., 146. Latinisme, latinismus.
1612. Brinsley, Lud. Lit., 98. That the Latinismes bee obserued … and to expresse them by as elegant and fit phrases as wee can in our tongue.
1642. Milton, Apol. Smect. (1851), 310. Preferring the gay ranknesse of … any moderne fustianist before the native Latinisms of Cicero.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 285, ¶ 9. Milton … has infused a great many Latinisms, as well as Græcisms … into the language of his poem.
1837. Thackeray, Carlyle’s Fr. Rev. It abounds with Germanisms and Latinisms.
1849. Fraser’s Mag., XXXIX. 394. He is so imbued with Latinism that the whole beautiful Hellenic manifestation seems … an impertinence to his eyes.
1855. Milman, Lat. Chr., XIV. vii. (1864), IX. 238. His Latinisms, and words of Latin descent, might seem drawn directly from the Vulgate.
1875. Stedman, Victorian Poets (1887), 161. Milton’s Latinism is so pronounced as to be un-English.
