Etymologically
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indecent

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɪnˈdiːs(ə)nt/[1]
  • US: /ɪnˈdi.sənt/[1]

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

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.