inverecund

English

WOTD – 4 August 2011

Etymology

From Latin inverecundus, from in- + verecundus (“modest”), from vereri (“to revere”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈvɛɹɪkʌnd/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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Adjective

inverecund (comparative more inverecund, superlative most inverecund)

1. (rare, archaic) Immodest; shameless.
   • 1909, Frederick Rolfe, Don Renato:

     Only in puerice do we possess the inverecund innocence of our primaeval progenitors.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 14: Oxen of the Sun]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 366:

     […] if an inverecund habit shall have gradually traduced the honourable by ancestors transmitted customs […]

Related terms

• verecund