chastity

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chastete, also chastite,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old French chasteté,^{[6][3][7][8][9]} and in the Middle English Dictionary's view also directly borrowed from Latin castitās.^[2] The Latin noun, meaning moral or sexual purity and also ceremonial purity, comes from castus (“pure, morally pure”) and a suffix.^[6][3][4] Etymonline glosses the adjective "cut off, separated; pure", referring it to caste,^[3] and the American Heritage Dictionary refers it to Proto-Indo-European *kes-.^[7] The OED adds that the Old French word was a second adaptation of the Latin, made under the influence of the adjective chaste, and that the modern English spelling moved further towards the Latin.^[6] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from 1120–40.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Abstinence from all sexual intercourse, virginity: about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle, a text perhaps composed before 1200.^[6] Etymonline dates the word to about 1200.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word named a Christian virtue that covered virginity, abstinence in religious orders, faithfulness in marriage and the continence of widows.^[2][3] The narrower sense of purity from unlawful intercourse appears about 1305.^[6] It may in turn have helped give the adjective chaste its sexual sense.^[3] Ceremonial purity, as in Latin, is recorded in the Wycliffite Bible of 1388 and rarely after it, until 1606.^[6] Johnson (1755) distinguished "purity of the body", "freedom from obscenity" and "freedom from bad mixture of any kind".^[11] In the 18th century the word was extended to style, as restraint and moderation from 1712, in Steele, and as freedom from showy ornament from 1760, in Sterne.^[6] The phrases belt of chastity (1878) and chastity-belt (1894) are recorded late, according to Etymonline.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – abstinence from all sexual intercourse; virginity, celibacy.^[6] Etymonline dates the word to about 1200.^[3]
• c. 1305 – purity from unlawful sexual intercourse.^[6]
• 1388 – ceremonial purity (rare, last in 1606).^[6]
• 1712 – moderation, restraint.^[6]
• 1760 – purity of style, freedom from showy ornament.^[6]
• 1878 – belt of chastity, followed by chastity-belt in 1894.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Abstaining from all sexual intercourse; virginity or celibacy: the monks' vow of chastity.^[12][4][6]
2. Abstaining from sexual relations that religion or morality condemns; moral purity or modesty.^[4][6][12]
3. Simplicity and restraint of style, free from showy ornament.^[4][6][8]

Word family

• nonchastity
• chastity belt

Related words

• chaste
• caste
• chasten
• chastise
• castigate

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins