simon-pure

adj.

1. Genuinely and thoroughly pure.
2. Superficially or hypocritically virtuous.

[From the phrase the real Simon Pure, after Simon Pure, a character in the play A Bold Stroke for a Wife by Susannah Centlivre (1669-1723).]

(SY-muhn PYOOR)

adjective
1. Genuinely pure; also used to describe an amateur as opposed to a professional.
2. Pretentiously or hypocritically virtuous.

Etymology
From the phrase the real Simon Pure, after a character named Simon Pure who was impersonated by another in the play A Bold Stroke for a Wife, by Susannah Centlivre (1669-1723).

Usage
"We get some perverse joy in pulling all but the most simon-pure heroes back into the muck with us." — Bruce Dowbiggin; Bailey-bashing Fashionable, But Undeserved; Calgary Herald (Canada); May 28, 2001.

"Those of us who live Simon-pure lives don't like to admit it, but most of us turn out pretty well only because we were born with the advantage of a normal home life and a reasonably happy childhood." — Bill Hughes; Why I Oppose The Death Penalty; Oakland Post (California); Mar 2, 1994.

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Absolutely genuine, quite authentic, as in That laboratory test was simon pure; none of the specimens was adulterated. This expression comes from the name of a character in a play, Susannah Centilivre's A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1717), who is the victim of an impersonation but turns up in the end and proves that he is "the real Simon Pure."

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