impudicity

English

Etymology

From Middle French impudicité, from Latin impudicus (“shameless, immodest”) + Middle French -ité. By surface analysis, im- +‎ pudic +‎ -ity.

Noun

impudicity (countable and uncountable, plural impudicities)

1. (formal) Immodesty; shamelessness.
   • 1734, “The Preliminary Discourse”, in George Sale, transl., The Koran, Commonly Called The Alcoran of Mohammed, Translated into English Immediately from the Original Arabic; […], London: […] C. Ackers […], for J. Wilcox […], →OCLC, section, page 134:

     It muſt be obſerved that though a man is allowed by the Mohammedan, as by the Jewish law, to repudiate his wife even on the ſlightest diſguſt, yet the women are not allowed to ſeparate themſelves from their huſbands, unleſs it be for ill uſage, want of proper maintenance, neglect of conjugal duty, impotency, or ſome cauſe of equal import; but then ſhe generally loſes her dowry, which ſhe does not, if divorced by her huſband, unleſs she has been guilty of impudicity or notorious diſobedience.

Related terms

• see: impudent

Translations

lack of modesty or shame

• Dutch: schaamteloosheid (nl)
• French: impudicité (fr)
• Italian: impudicizia (it)
• Spanish: impudicia (es)

Further reading

• “impudicity”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “impudicity”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.