Word of the Day

Tuesday September 29, 2009

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licentious [lie-SEN-shuhs]

adjective

1. Lacking moral discipline, especially sexually unrestrained; lewd; lascivious.
2. Unrestrained by law or morality; lawless; immoral.

• Yahia has spoken for the first time about how he was turned into a terrible imitation of Saddam Hussein's murderous and licentious son, how he eventually escaped and how he is now trying to exorcise the evil persona that entered him.
  Marie Colvin, "My years of blood as brutal Uday's double", Sunday Times, Sep 6, 2009
• Virginia Johnson was a secretary in the ob-gyn clinic, twice divorced, with two children and no degree. She was comely, sexually experienced and, more important, licentious. She cared nothing for the hullaballoo over love and romance.
  Cristina Nehring, "Practice, Practice, Practice", New York Times Book Review, Jun 28, 2009
• O man! while in thy early years, How prodigal of time! Misspending all thy precious hours, Thy glorious youthful prime! Alternate follies take the sway; Licentious passions burn; Which tenfold force gives nature's law, That man was made to mourn.
  Robert Burns (1759 - 1796) A Scottish poet and a lyricist. Man Was Made to Mourn. A Dirge

Origin of the Word

Licentious, approximately 1535, derives from Medieval Latin licentiosus "full of license, unrestrained," from Latin licentia "freedom, liberty, license."