fescennine

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
15
Words With Friends
19
Letters
10
Pronunciation
/ˈfɛsənʌɪn/ (UK)

Definition of fescennine

3 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. Obscene or scurrilous.
    “[T]he frolicsome company had begun to practise the ancient and now forgotten pastime of High Jinks. This game was played in several different ways. Most frequently the dice were thrown by the company, and those upon whom the lot fell were obliged to assume and maintain, for a time, a certain fictitious character, or to repeat a certain number of fescennine verses in a particular order.”
    “As the poet decorously shows his desire to consummate the marriage, he retains the fescennine element without being crude.”
    “The conventional complaint over the delay in the proceedings is voiced by the poet in […] [this] series of questions which include fescennine teasing of the bridal couple”
    “For instance, I admit that this book is anacreontic, paphian, and sometimes even fescennine […]”
See all 3 definitions

adj

  1. Obscene or scurrilous.
    “[T]he frolicsome company had begun to practise the ancient and now forgotten pastime of High Jinks. This game was played in several different ways. Most frequently the dice were thrown by the company, and those upon whom the lot fell were obliged to assume and maintain, for a time, a certain fictitious character, or to repeat a certain number of fescennine verses in a particular order.”
    “As the poet decorously shows his desire to consummate the marriage, he retains the fescennine element without being crude.”
    “The conventional complaint over the delay in the proceedings is voiced by the poet in […] [this] series of questions which include fescennine teasing of the bridal couple”
    “For instance, I admit that this book is anacreontic, paphian, and sometimes even fescennine […]”
  2. Of or pertaining to the ancient Etruscan town of Fescennia
  3. obscene or scurrilous
    “At this hour the seat was as in a theatre, but the words of the actors were of a nature somewhat too Fescennine for the public.”
    “And when Freudian fiction becomes – as it has become in America – but an inviting wall on which to scribble Fescennine filth – that, too, is another matter.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Latin Fescennīnus, from the name of the ancient Etruscan town of Fescennia, noted for the "Fescennine Verses", a tradition of scurrilous songs performed on special occasions.

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