Word.ws English Dictionary

pertineer

pertineer adverb: almost; nearly.

Adverb

pertineer (not comparable)

  1. (colloquial) Almost; nearly.
    • "She made one leap towards it, but when she touched the pitcher, she drew back in dismay. 'My! It's pertineer boilin'!' she gasped."1911, Agnes Roma Johnson et al., “Keeping Up Appearances”, in Pacific Short Story Club magazine, volumes 4–6, Pacific Short Story Club, page 23
    • "'But my oldest sister was twelve at that time, "pertineer" thirteen and she always seemed like a mother to us.'"1997, Leonard C. Sly, Worlds of Pain and Joy: Reflections on Working-Class Lives, University of Michigan-Flint

Forms of pertineer

alternative formpurtineer

Origin of pertineer

From pretty + near. See Carleton County Colloquialisms.

Questions about pertineer

What does pertineer mean?
Pertineer means almost; nearly.
What part of speech is pertineer?
Pertineer is an adverb.

Words near pertineer in the dictionary

  1. pertinacity
  2. pertinacy
  3. pertinant
  4. pertinate
  5. pertinately
  6. pertineer
  7. pertinence
  8. pertinences
  9. pertinencies
  10. pertinency
  11. pertinent

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pertineer (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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