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In the closing of an English L&U question, one of our users, Cerberus, used what I'm sure is a marvelous construction full of history, pur sang, as in:

"...he is trying to argue here why it should mean something other than it does, which is argumentative pur sang."

Now I know "sang" means blood in Latin, and "pur" probably means "in order to" or something, but I don't get the feel of this phrase by breaking it down into its constituents. What does pur sang mean in this context? Is there a particularly famous literary usage?

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  • I don't think one can say that a thing (un pur sang) is argumentative. That would translate as: argumentative pure blood.
    – Lambie
    Commented Apr 29, 2020 at 18:20
  • Why would you not accept, for instance, google.com/… which boils down to Originally, pure sang was an expression used to qualify horses whose parents blood had never been mixed with other species. When used with other concepts, "pure sang" means full, genuine. In the original quote. which is argumentative pur sang
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Commented May 2, 2020 at 20:26

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as a French guy I suppose I can help you resolve this problem.

Originally, pure sang was an expression used to qualify horses whose parents blood had never been mixed with other species.

When used with other concepts, "pure sang" means full, genuine.

In the original quote

which is argumentative pur sang.

Cerberus means that the attitude of the other person is fully, totally argumentative.

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    In that context, I would use quintessential to translate this “pur sang” phrase.
    – F'x
    Commented Mar 8, 2011 at 11:40
  • 2
    just a small orthographic nitpick: in French, it's "pur sang", not "pure sang", since sang ins masculine.
    – Frédéric Grosshans
    Commented Mar 8, 2011 at 11:41
  • "argumentative pur sang" ne veut pas dire grand chose en anglais. Surtout pour contrecarrer les propos d'un autre.
    – Lambie
    Commented Apr 29, 2020 at 18:22
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It's a French expression meaning pure-blooded (the literal translation) or thoroughbred. In the example, he's saying that it's a quintessential example of being argumentative. I'm not aware of a famous literary usage, but French literature is not my forte.

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  • I suppose a famous "literary usage" would be in the french national anthem: "..qu'un sang impur.." Well ok, that's the opposite. :)
    – David
    Commented Mar 10, 2011 at 6:05

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