licentious

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin licentiōsus (“full of licence, unrestrained”),^[2][3][4] from Latin licentia (“freedom, liberty, licence”),^[3][5][6] from licēns, present participle of liceō (“to be allowed, be lawful”).^[3] The American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster simply call the immediate source Latin,^[5][7] and the OED treats the ending as the English suffix -ous, comparing Old French licentieux, modern French licencieux.^[2] Barnhart thinks the sense "lewd" may come from Middle French licencieux, recorded in 1537 in a translation of Castiglione's “Il Cortegiano”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adverb, "with licence; freely": about 1425, in the Foundation of St Bartholomew's.^[2][4] The adjective, "lawless, unrestrained", follows in 1535, in an Act of Henry VIII,^[2][4][7] and Etymonline dates it to the 1530s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Latin noun was used of liberty in both a good and a bad sense.^[3] The broad sense of lawless or morally unrestrained was soon joined by the sexual one, in R. Eden's translation of Peter Martyr (1555),^[2][4] and that sense has so taken over that the OED calls the broad use rare on account of it.^[2] From 1589, in Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, the word was also applied to departures from rules of grammar or literary style,^[2] a use now archaic.^[5][6] Johnson (1755) gave "unrestrained by law or morality" and "presumptuous; unconfined", quoting Roscommon on the "licentious waves" of the Tiber.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – adverb, with licence, freely.^[2][4]
• 1535 – unrestrained by law, decorum or morality.^[2][4][7]
• 1555 – lewd, sexually unrestrained.^[2][4]
• 1589 – disregarding rules, especially of grammar or style.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Sexually unrestrained; promiscuous or lewd: The novel describes the licentious habits of the old court.^[9][5][2]
2. Having no legal or moral restraint; lawless or immoral, now rare.^[7][2][6]
3. (archaic) Ignoring accepted rules or standards, especially of grammar or literary style.^[5][6][2]

Adverb

1. (obsolete, c. 1425) With licence or liberty; freely.^[2][6]

Word family

• licentiously
• licentiousness

Related words

• license
• licence
• illicit

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins