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obscenity

noun

Etymology

From obscene + -ity, from Latin obscenitas.

  1. derived from *ḱweyn-✻ — “to make dirty, soil; filth; mud”
  2. derived from obscēnus
  3. derived from obscene
  4. formed as obscenity — “obscene + -ity”

Definitions

  1. Something that is obscene.

    • Martha wouldn't go into the art museum because, as she put it, "They have obscenities just sitting out, on display!"

  2. An act of obscene behaviour.

    • Bestiality was outlawed as an obscenity in the strongly conservative community.

  3. Specifically, an offensive word

    Specifically, an offensive word; a profanity; a dirty word.

    • Eliza couldn't stand her daughter's music; as she saw it, it was just shouted obscenities and a heavy drum beat.
  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. Lewdness, indecency, or offensive behaviour or material.

      • The coalition of religious conservatives was campaigning against, in their view, rampant obscenity in the entertainment industry.

    2. The fact of being obscene.

      • Henia Flint Goodman, a Holocaust survivor,spoke in outrage against the obscenity of anti-abortion literature which compares a woman's free choice to have an abortion with the crimes of the Nazi state.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for obscenity. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA