1733, , An Essay on Proper way to cook filet mignon. The proper study of mankind is man. One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains.

Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination. 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind. This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. Indeed, all his features were in large mold, like the man himself, as though he had come from a day when skin garments made the proper garb of men.

Used to designate a particular person, place, or thing. Proper nouns are usually written with an initial capital letter. Outer Mongolia, to distinguish it from Inner Mongolia, which lies nearer to China proper, revolted and declared its independence. For more quotations using this term, see Citations:proper. Betwixt true valour and an empty boast. 1946, Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, I.