indecent

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French indécent or directly borrowed from Latin indecēns (“unseemly, unfitting”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from in- (“not”) and decēns (“fitting, seemly, proper”),^[3][4][7] the present participle of decet (“to be fitting or suitable”),^[3] which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *dek- (“to take, accept”).^[3] The French word is recorded from the 14th century.^[2][3] Barnhart notes that some scholars take the Latin adjective as a loan translation of a Greek adjective meaning unseemly or improper.^[4] It is the negative of decent.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Unbecoming, unseemly, in very bad taste: 1570, in John Foxe's Actes and Monumentes;^[2] Barnhart dates it to 1563–87, in an edition of the same book.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word first described what was unsuitable to the occasion or the person, a sense still alive in the phrase indecent haste.^[2][8][6] From 1590, in Spenser's Faerie Queene, it could also mean unattractive in form, a sense lost by 1743.^[2] The sense of offending against modesty, with a suggestion of obscenity, is recorded from 1613,^[2][4][3] and it is now the usual one.^[8] The legal term indecent assault (1861) at first covered sexual assaults other than rape, but by 1934 it was also used as a euphemism for rape.^[3] In Scots and Irish dialect the word had the forms ondacent and ondecent and meant unbecoming or disreputable.^[9]

Timeline

• 1570 – unbecoming, unseemly.^[2][4]
• 1590 – unattractive in form (obsolete by 1743).^[2]
• 1613 – offending against modesty; tending to obscenity.^[2][4][3]
• 1861 – indecent assault.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Offending against accepted standards of decency, especially in sexual matters; obscene or immodest: an indecent joke.^[8][6][2]
2. Not suitable to the circumstances; unseemly or improper: He took the job with indecent haste.^[8][6][2]
3. (obsolete, 1590–1743) Unattractive in form; uncomely.^[2][10]

Word family

• indecently
• indecency
• indecent assault
• indecent exposure

Related words

• decency
• decent
• decorum
• decorous

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.