a. and sb. Also stilistic. [f. STYLE sb. + -IST + -IC; after G. stilistisch adj., stilistik sb.] A. adj. Pertaining to literary style.
1860. G. P. Marsh, Lect. Engl. Lang., 82. Njála,… which, as an example of pure stylistic excellence, may fairly be pronounced altogether unsurpassed.
1864. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., XVI. ix. IV. 380. Mere grammatical stylistic skin-deep work.
1877. E. W. Gosse, North. Studies, 4 Danish Poets (1890), 227. Paul Heyse … with his lyrical drama of Amor and Psyche, a work displaying stilistic gift of the first order.
1883. R. L. Stevenson, in Mag. of Art, Nov., 26/2. The engendering idea of some works is stylistic; a technical preoccupation stands them instead of some robuster principle of life.
1888. Jewish Q. Rev., I. 77. Historical, linguistic, and stylistic peculiarities converge, he thinks, to prove this.
1911. H. O. Taylor, Mediaeval Mind, VI. xxxi. II. 152. The stylistic genius of Augustine and Jerome.
B. sb. The science of literary style; the study of stylistic features. Also (more commonly) Stylistics [see -ICS].
[1846. Worcester, Stylistic, the art of forming a good style in writing; a treatise on style.]
1882–3. Schaff, Encycl. Rel. Knowl., II. 965. Giving proper place to New Testament stylistics and rhetoric.
1906. Month, Feb., 215. A question of ‘Stylistic,’ to adopt a convenient, though to English ears an uncouth, German expression.
So Stylistical a. = STYLISTIC a. Stylistically adv., with regard to literary or artistic style; also, in a stylized or conventional manner.
1889. A. J. Evans, in Archæol. Rev., II. 323. An ivory object … so stylistically carved as to remind us of the treatment of some late Celtic bronze articles.
1889. Class. Rev., III. 87/2. The reproductions look pretty, but are far from being stylistically satisfactory. Ibid. (1897), XI. 284/1. Great numbers of stylistical peculiarities are required for correct inferences.
1911. H. O. Taylor, Mediaeval Mind, II. xiv. I. 346. Stylistically, these great church mosaics belonged to antique art.
1915. Nation (N. Y.), 10 June, 650/1. Several glazed pieces, notably the Visitation, [etc.] seem stylistically to belong before 1440.
