proprietousadj.

1815 C. Capel Let. Apr.–May (1955) iv. 201 Your G[rand]-Daughters..are the most proprietous & particular in their behaviour of any here.

1844 Ainsworth's Mag. 6 228 An elderly person, whose proprietous grey silk dress..conveyed the idea of a distant relative.

1882 ‘L. Malet’ Mrs. Lorimer I. vi. 132 Mrs. Mainwaring had lost for a moment that proprietous self-command and calm dignity of demeanour, which..were certainly liable to keep most people at a very respectful distance from her.

1974 R. B. Parker Godwulf Manuscript i. 9 The elevator..was covered with obscene graffiti that some proprietous soul had tried to doctor into acceptability.

1979 Verbatim Autumn 1/1 The Bride's vivid description of her passion for the Bridegroom [in the Song of Songs] as ‘my bowels were moved for him’—striking in its proprietous King James context (5:4)—is rendered ‘my inwards seethed for him.’

2002 Florida Times-Union (Nexis) 26 June k1 I didn't feel it would be proprietous to ring too soon thereafter, so I rang after three weeks.

1845 Ainsworth's Mag. 7 498 The rows of canvass-covered proprietous-looking [bathing] machines.

1913 D. H. Lawrence Sons & Lovers viii. 181 He must see a girl home from the skating-rink—quite proprietously—and so can't get home.

1967 Wisconsin Stud. Contemp. Lit. 8 395 The woman is proprietously aloof and chaste until a man wins her and then she fulfils his warmest expectations of sensuality.