obscene
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /əbˈsiːn/
enpr: əb-sēnʹ
ipa: /əbˈsin/
rhymes: -iːn
Forms: form: obscener
form: more obscene
form: obscenest
form: most obscene
form: obscæne
Etymology: From Middle French obscene (modern French obscène (“indecent, obscene”)), and from its etymon Latin obscēnus, obscaenus (“inauspicious; ominous; disgusting, filthy; offensive, repulsive; indecent, lewd, obscene”).
The further etymology is uncertain, but may be from ob- (prefix meaning ‘towards’) + caenum (“dirt, filth; mire, mud”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱweyn- (“to make dirty, soil; filth; mud”)) or scaevus (“left, on the left side; clumsy; (figurative) unlucky”) (from Proto-Indo-European *skeh₂iwo-). If so, the unexpected extra -s- may be from a variant form of the original PIE root; a similar -s- exists in ex-.
Senses: examples: text: [...] I did incounter that obſeene and moſt prepoſterous euent that draweth frõ my ſnowhite pen the ebon coloured Incke, which here thou vieweſt, beholdeſt, ſuruayeſt, or ſeeſt. [...] There did I ſee that low ſpirited Swaine, [...] hight Coſtard, (Clow[ne]. O mee) ſorted and conſorted contrary to thy eſtabliſhed proclaymed Edict and continent Cannon; Which with, o with, but with this I paſſion to ſay wherewith: / Clo[wne]. With a Wench.
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [1880], →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
text: Neither do wee pleaſe them with their owne crimes, or obſcæne ſpectacles: whereas they celebrate both the guilt that there gods incurred who were men, and the fayned pleaſures of ſuch of them as were flat deuills.
ref: 1610, S[ain]t Augustine, “Of the Honor that Christians Giue to the Martires”, in J[ohn] H[ealey], transl., St. Augustine, of the Citie of God: […], [London]: […] George Eld, →OCLC, page 336:
text: Shall I recount his intemperance, voluptuouſneſs, and obſcæne manner of living? or his impious, doubtful or wicked end? no, let them be buried with his aſhes.
ref: 1654, Jo[hn] Webster, “Of Scholastick Philosophy”, in Academiarum Examen, or The Examination of Academies. […], London: […] Giles Calvert, […], →OCLC, paragraph 3, page 54:
text: What is obscene today may not be so tomorrow or what is obscene at one place may not be obscene at another place.
ref: 1990, Inder S. Rana, Law of Obscenity in India, USA & UK, New Delhi: Mittal Publications, →ISBN, page 109:
text: The chapter closes with some thoughts on the obscene consumer from both a postmodern, and especially a modern, perspective. From the latter point of view, the obscene consumer is one who either consumes too little or who consumes what are, from the perspective of consumer society, the 'wrong' things (heroin, guns). (I propose the concept of the 'dangerous consumer' here since it is clear that such consumers can pose a danger to contemporary society.) From a postmodern perspective, the obscene consumer is one who consumes in a highly visible manner.
ref: 2001, George Ritzer, Explorations in the Sociology of Consumption: Fast Food, Credit Cards and Casinos, London; Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications, →ISBN, pages 8–9:
text: South Park, at the end of the twentieth century, earned international acclaim as the most obscene, scatological, sacrilegious, and popular comedy in the American mainstream and became a leading profit center for Comedy Central.
ref: 2009, Lori Lipoma, “Kirkegaard, Contradiction, and South Park: The Jester’s View of Religion”, in Leslie Stratyner, James R. Keller, editors, The Deep End of South Park: Critical Essays on Television’s Shocking Cartoon Series, Jefferson, N.C.; London: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 18:
text: However, the new is not radical or provocative or obscene a priori. Provocation develops when the 'communicative contract' between the clothing and the consumer is broken, resulting in shocked rejection or euphoric acceptance.
ref: 2009, Ingrid Loschek, “When is Creativity?”, in Lucinda Rennison, transl., When Clothes become Fashion: Design and Innovation Systems, Oxford, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Berg, →ISBN, part II (Invention and Innovation), page 39:
antonyms: decent
moral
nonobscene
glosses: Offensive to standards of decency or morality.
examples: text: Playes are the nurseries of vice, the bawd, / That thorow the senses steales our hearts abroad, / Tainting our eares with obscæne bawdery, / Lascivious words, and wanton ribaulry.
ref: 1629, Fra[ncis] Lenton, “Section XIV. The Young Gallant’s Whirlgig.”, in James Orchard Halliwell, editor, The Marriage of Wit and Wisdom, an Ancient Interlude. […], London: […] Shakespeare Society, published 1846, →OCLC, page 129:
text: All masturbation is obscene, for [Roger] Scruton, also because it "involves a concentration on the body and its curious pleasures" [...].
ref: 1996, Alan Soble, “Masturbation”, in Sexual Investigations, New York, N.Y.: New York University Press, →ISBN, page 104:
text: Obscene phone calling is usually considered a nuisance to the women receiving such calls from a man who makes obscene suggestions or describes his masturbation over the telephone.
ref: 2004 August 25, Victor T. Cheney, “Other Sex-related Problems”, in The Sex Offenses and their Treatments: The Problem—The Solution—Commentary, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 223:
text: He [Justin Martyr] asks how pagan gods who exhibit the same destructive passions and obscene desires as wicked humans can be worthy of worship.
ref: 2011, Chanon R. Ross, “Obscenity”, in Joel B. Green, editor, Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, Baker Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 560, column 2:
text: I was contacted about a two-year-old Latino male and informed that his behavior was obscene. I was advised about this by two female relatives to the child. They had a hard time explaining to me that the boy wanted to have relations with his grandmother. [...] This boy was demon spirit possessed!
ref: 2011, Alberto Salinas, Jr., “Actual Demon Possession Cases”, in The Border Healer: My Life as a Curandero, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, part 4 (Demon Possession and Exorcism), page 123:
text: One of his [Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's] contradictions, which is puzzling, comes from his objectivity, stubbornness, and great interest in abusive words and obscene jokes, despite his religiousness and his chastity, which he refused to abandon during his life.
ref: 2013 January 10, Naser Hegazy, “Mozart’s Genius”, in Secrets of Love, Marriage, Sex, Genius, Success, and Happiness: Analytic View According to the Recent Scientific Studies, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, part 4 (Secrets of Genius), page 106:
antonyms: chaste
nonobscene
pure
glosses: Lewd or lustful.
examples: text: Scrooge listened to this dialogue in horror. As they sat grouped about their spoil, in the scanty light afforded by the old man's lamp, he viewed them with a detestation and disgust, which could hardly have been greater, though they had been obscene demons, marketing the corpse itself.
ref: 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Four. The Last of the Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 135:
text: The reminder of who we were / made the canned laughter obscene. / Disgusted, mother returned to the kitchen, / her thoughts private.
ref: 2002 October, Susanne Heinz, Deborah Miller, “Hogan’s Heroes”, in Grandmother’s Radio: Echoes from the Holocaust, Calgary, Alta.: Bayeux Arts, →ISBN, page 66:
text: Her mom made her break up with me when she found a note I wrote to Linda; she found it obscene. I found HER obscene.
ref: 2014 February 12, Scott Ludwig, “October”, in My Life: Everything but BUY THE BOOK!: Part 2 of 2, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN:
text: Mass shootings occur for a variety of reasons, including social frustration, alienation, detachment, and mental instability. [...] Of course it is very difficult to pinpoint why someone would resort to such obscene violence.
ref: 2017, Kyle W. Letteney, “Self-inflicted Wound: On the Paradoxical Dimensions of American Violence”, in Tatiana Savoia Landini, François Dépelteau, editors, Norbert Elias and Violence, New York, N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, part II (Strengths and Limits), page 149:
antonyms: nonobscene
glosses: Disgusting or repulsive.
examples: text: Yossarian went along in Milo Minderbinder's speeding M & M staff car to police headquarters to meet a swarthy, untidy police commissioner with a narrow black mustache and unbuttoned tunic who was fiddling with a stout woman with warts and two chins when they entered his office and who greeted Milo with warm surprise and bowed and scraped in obscene servility as though Milo were some elegant marquis.
ref: 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Eternal City”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 425:
text: "You ate an obscene amount of those lobster patties last night, Deb." / "And I plan to eat an obscene amount of them tonight as well," I replied.
ref: 1999, Joan Wolf, chapter 4, in The Pretenders, [San Francisco, Calif.]: Untreed Reads, published 2020, →ISBN:
text: She would probably jump at the chance to show everyone how to save an obscene amount of money with an obscene amount of coupons.
ref: 2015 February, Vivi Barnes, chapter 18, in Stacy Abrams, Tara Quigley, editors, Paper or Plastic, Fort Collins, Colo.: Entangled Teen, Entangled Publishing, →ISBN:
text: I was never jealous or envious when it came to things. The fact that Mama wanted to shower my friend with presents never affected me. Things meant nothing to me because I had an obscene quantity of everything.
ref: 2016, Marcela Del Sol, Kaleidoscope: My Life’s Multiple Reflections, Calwell, Canberra, A.C.T.: Inspiring Publishers, →ISBN, page 102:
synonyms: word: excessive
word: extravagant
word: unmeasured
word: unreasonable
word: extreme
word: immoderate
word: intemperate
word: lavish
word: nimious
word: obscene
word: overmuch
word: overweening
word: over the top
word: prodigal
word: undue
word: unrestrained
word: wanton
antonyms: word: excessive
glosses: Beyond all reason; excessive.
examples: text: For the purposes of this Act an article shall be deemed to be obscene if its effect or (where the article comprises two or more distinct items) the effect of any one of its items is, if taken as a whole, such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it.
ref: 1959 August 29, Obscene Publications Act 1959 (7 & 8 Eliz. II, chapter 66), London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2020, section 1(1):
text: The tract was far more political and religious than sexual, but Cockburn [Sir Alexander Cockburn, 12th Baronet] found it obscene because it would suggest to young persons (of either sex) "impure and libidinous" thoughts.
ref: 2006, Philip A. Dynia, “Obscenity”, in Paul Finkelman, editor, Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties, volumes 2 (G–Q), New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, →ISBN, page 1116, column 1:
text: The principle that obscene material must have more serious effects than arousing feelings of revulsion leads to the doctrine that material that in fact shocks and disgusts may not be obscene, since its effect is to discourage readers from indulgence in the immorality so unappetizingly portrayed.
ref: 2009, Andrea Millwood Hargrave, Sonia M. Livingstone, “Annex II: The Legal Framework of English Law Regulating Media Content”, in Harm and Offence in Media Content: A Review of the Evidence, 2nd edition, Fishponds, Bristol; Chicago, Ill.: Intellect Books, →ISBN, pages 282–283:
text: An article is not obscene simply because it is repulsive or filthy. The prosecution must prove that its tendency is strong enough actually to deprave and corrupt a significant proportion of its likely audience; in other words, to pervert or corrupt their morals sufficiently for it to constitute a public menace. [...] Anything tending to deprave or corrupt may be obscene, including material encouraging the taking of dangerous drugs or glorifying violence, particularly if it is expressly targeted at children or adolescents.
ref: 2016, Hugh Jones, Christopher Benson, “Defamation and Other Risks”, in Publishing Law, 5th edition, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, part IV (Publish and Be Damned), page 228:
antonyms: decent
nonobscene
qualifier: criminal law
glosses: Liable to corrupt or deprave.
Synonyms: word: adult
word: bawdy
word: blue
word: cheeky
word: dirty
word: indecent
word: filthy
word: gross
word: harlot
word: ithyphallic
word: lewd
word: mucky
word: naughty
word: near the knuckle
word: obscene
word: off-colour
word: racy
word: raunchy
word: ribald
word: ribaudred
word: ribaudrous
word: risqué
word: rorty
word: salacious
word: saucy
word: shocking
word: sluttish
word: slutlike
word: slutty
word: smutty
word: spicy
word: tartish
word: tarty
word: trampy
word: vulgar
Hypernyms: word: exciting
word: immoral
word: impure
word: sexual
word: unreserved
Hyponyms: word: hookerish
word: pornographic
word: promiscuous
word: whorish
word: whorelike
word: whorey
Derived terms: word: nonobscene
word: obscenely
word: obsceneness
word: obscenery
word: obscenicon
word: obscenist
word: obscenometer
word: unobscene
Related terms: word: obscenity
word: obscenous
word: obscenousness