preceptive

preceptive

English

Etymology

    From precept + -ive.

    Adjective

    preceptive (comparative more preceptive, superlative most preceptive)

    1. (law) Of, pertaining to, or based on precepts
      • 1677, John Owen, The Doctrine of Justification by Faith[1]:
        If it was necessary, that Christ as our surety should suffer the penalty of the law in our stead, because we have sinned; then it was also necessary that as our Surety, he should yield obedience to the preceptive part of the law also;
    2. instructive; didactic
      • 1810, John Quincy Adams, Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory[2]:
        It is altogether preceptive, barely containing the rules, without illustration from example. It is a system of rhetoric in the abstract.

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