pharis-, pharisa-
(Greek > Latin: pharisaios; from Aramaic prisayya; "those who are separate")
There were Pharisaic tendencies to have a self-sufficient and haughty attitude about their religious beliefs.
At times, a pharisaic person is described as someone who observes the formalities of a religion, but who neglects the spirit of his or her religious beliefs.
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2. Relating to being self-righteously obsessed with religious rules and acting with hypocrisy with regard to the strict adherence to those standards and formalities: While the Pharisees, as a group, set high expectations for themselves, not all of the Pharisaical members lived up to those practices.
In modern times, there are pharisaical followers who appear to be following the religious teachings of their organizations, but are deceivers who are actually making false claims and practicing more immoral lives than the teachings which they profess to be adhering to.
2. Etymology: from ecclesiastical Latin pharisaicus which came from Greek pharisalos, "those who are separate".Some Pharisees were legalistic and socially exclusive because they considered non-Pharisees to be spiritually unclean.
At least part of the time, Pharisees were admired by the common people because they functioned as social and political forces against foreign and hellenized Jewish leaders who were sympathetic to the Greek language and culture.
3. Etymology: from the Hebrew word perusim, "the separate ones" which is based on the verb perash, "to separate" or "to set apart"; which became pharisaios in Greek, and was applied to any self-righteous person.