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obscenus. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
obscenus, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
obscenus in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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Latin
Etymology
Uncertain. Usually derived from Proto-Indo-European *ḱʷeyn- (“to soil; mud; filth”). According to Pokorny, cognate with inquinō, caenum, cūniō and whin.
Pronunciation
Adjective
obscēnus (feminine obscēna, neuter obscēnum, superlative obscēnissimus); first/second-declension adjective
- inauspicious, ominous, portentous
- repulsive, offensive, abominable, hateful, disgusting, filthy
- immodest, impure, indecent, lewd, obscene
8 CE,
Ovid,
Fasti 3.675–676:
- nunc mihi cūr cantent superest obscēna puellae
dīcere; nam coeunt certaque probra canunt- Now it remains for me to say why the girls sing obscene songs,
for they get together and recite certain indecencies.
(The ancient Roman festival of Anna Perenna included merry references to a mythological prank: After Mars asked the elderly goddess Anna to help him woo young Minerva, a veiled Anna fooled Mars by entering his bedchamber herself and mocking the god once he realized the deception.)
Declension
First/second-declension adjective.
Descendants
References
- “obscenus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “obscenus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- obscenus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.