Definition of "provincialism"

provincialism

noun
countable and uncountable, plural provincialisms
1. The quality of being provincial; having provincial tastes, mentality, manners.
2. (linguistics) A word or locution characteristic of a region or district.
  Quotations
  Prose is allowed less liberty in this respect; but no one nowadays would maintain that the adoption of a provincialism into the literary dialect is absolutely prohibited.
  1875, Andrew Dousa Hepburn, Manual of English Rhetoric, New York: American Book Company, page 79
3. (politics) Synonym of regionalism: belief in the superiority of one's regional government; the belief that most or nearly all political power should be decentralized to provincial governments.