libertine









libertine


noun

  1. a person who is morally or sexually unrestrained, especially a dissolute man; a profligate; rake.
  2. a freethinker in religious matters.
  3. a person freed from slavery in ancient Rome.

adjective

  1. free of moral, especially sexual, restraint; dissolute; licentious.
  2. freethinking in religious matters.
  3. Archaic. unrestrained; uncontrolled.

noun

  1. a morally dissolute person

adjective

  1. morally dissolute

n.late 14c., “a freedman, an emancipated slave,” from Latin libertinus “member of a class of freedmen,” from libertus “one’s freedmen,” from liber “free” (see liberal). Sense of “freethinker” is first recorded 1560s, from French libertin (1540s) originally the name given to certain Protestant sects in France and the Low Countries. Meaning “dissolute or licentious person” first recorded 1590s; the darkening of meaning being perhaps due to misunderstanding of Latin libertinus in Acts vi:9. As an adjective by 1570s.

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