Proustian
/ˈpɹusti.ən/adjective
Proustian is an adjective meaning “Of, pertaining to, or reminiscent of Marcel Proust (1871–1922), French novelist, or his works” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-R-O-U-S-T-I-A-N, and it appears about once in every 30 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does Proustian mean?
adjective
- 1
Of, pertaining to, or reminiscent of Marcel Proust (1871–1922), French novelist, or his works.
- 2
Derived from personal memory, as it often happens in the works of Proust (for example, in the experience of the madeleine).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce Proustian?
- UK /ˈpɹuːstɪ.ən/
- US /ˈpɹusti.ən/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of Proustian
- more Proustian comparative
- most Proustian superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is Proustian?
Proustian appears about once in every 30 million words in written English, the 165,739th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Proustian in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense reminiscent of Marcel Proust or his works:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | proustien |
| German | proustisch, proustianisch |
| Spanish | proustiano |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does Proustian come from?
From French Proust + -ian.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).