[ad. Gr. Ἀττικισμός.]
1. Siding with, or attachment to, Athens.
1628. Hobbes, Thucyd., VIII. xxxviii. Tydeus and his accomplices were put to death for atticism.
1837. Thirlwall, Greece, IV. xxxi. 188. The charge of Atticism.
2. The peculiar style and idiom of the Greek language as used by the Athenians; hence, refined, elegant Greek, and gen. a refined amenity of speech, a well-turned phrase.
1612. T. James, Corrupt. Script., II. 68. Which yet for the stile and Atticismes comes a great deale short of Baronius commendation.
1642. Milton, Apol. Smect., Wks. 1851, 268. They made sport, and I laught, they mispronounct and I mislikt, and to make up the atticisme, they were out, and I hist.
1792. W. Newcome, Eng. Biblical Transl., 279 (T.). There is an elegant Atticism which occurs [in] Luke xiii. 9. If it bear fruit, well.
1813. Examiner, 10 May, 298/1. Such a man would accuse Thucydides of false grammar on account of his atticisms.