Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Licentious; obscene.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Pertaining to or characteristic of ancient Fescenniain Italy: specifically applied to a class of verses. See phrase below.
- n. A song of licentious or scurrilous character, popular in ancient Italy.
Wiktionary
- adj. Obscene or scurrilous.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Pertaining to, or resembling, the Fescennines.
Etymologies
- 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. (Wiktionary)
- Latin Fescennīnus, of Fescennia, a town of ancient Etruria known for its licentious poetry. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Ali Shar (vol.iv. 187) shows at her sale the impudence of Miriam the Girdle-girl and in bed the fescennine device of the Lady Budur.”
“Nowas makes his appearance the fun becomes fescennine and milesian.”
“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.”
“Here rang out the joyous conversation, interspersed with the Latin epithalamium of some impromptu poet, or the fescennine verses of a German minnesinger.”
“Finally, wherever the honest and independent old debauchee Abu Nowas makes his appearance the fun becomes fescennine and milesian.”
“( "Smaragdine") in Ali Shar (vol.iv. 187) shows at her sale the impudence of Miriam the Girdle-girl and in bed the fescennine device of the Lady Budur.”
“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.”
“These are the things that put the 'Great' in Britain, and just a fraction of the fescennine cast of this unexpectedly brilliant point-and-click adventure from Northern Irish animation studio Straandlooper.”
“And just a few words later we'll be out and about in paragraph seven itself to find out just what all the fuss, the hysteria and the frat-boy whooping is about in the company of Great Britain's very own me, with a little help from gold medal adjective, fescennine.”
“So, without further ado, let's take a look back right now at what, by any stretch of somebody's imagination has been a wonderfully frenetic, if not-quite as fescennine as we might have hoped, column, starting with that incredible opening sentence which now seems as if it occurred - oh my goodness!”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fescennine’.
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phrontistery - f
from phrontistery.info
fabaceous, fabiform, fabulist, faburden, face-cord, facetiae, facia, facinorous, factious, factitious, factitive, factive and 418 more...
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250 More Spelling Words
More words for intermediate and advanced spellers.
melisma, dioecious, jejunity, sialogogue, zingiber, zendik, dithyramb, pneuma, kachina, agiotage, baedeker, sabulous and 238 more...
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More Adjectival Arcana
List of adjectives such as everduring that do not frequent common speech and writing. A continuation of my list Adjectival Arcana, which had grown to over 7700 words and had become far too cumbersome.
transpontine, fetichistic, everduring, tachygraphic, tachygraphical, holographic, holographical, spectrobolographic, autographic, chirographal, autographal, ipsographic and 1419 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Awesome Words, Part 1: Less Common
These are words that I have learnt over the years and want to remember
epithalamium, hustings, verger, atheling, moue, pendulous, pendragon, funicular, pericope, fettle, eleemosynary, moot and 160 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Let's talk about sex
A collection of words about doing the nasty.
prurient, odalisque, soubrette, gravid, lochia, xenogamy, syngamy, zygote, pintle, hexaploid, seminal, hetaera and 232 more...
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litigious semantics
ad unguem, abeyance, choleric, contentious, curmudgeonly, churlish, dictatorial, vindictive, dogmatic, truculent, mutinous, refractory and 254 more...
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Collage's Words
subtle, calamity, impale, qat, painterly, piebald, surly, nihilistic, repine, slake, larder, sepulchre and 349 more...
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Wordie/Wordnik Curio Cabinet
Oddments culled from my "main" lists that belong in a display cabinet of their own, plus sundry other curiosities. :-)
zeugma, ziggurat, xiphoid, xeric, whizgigging, whangdoodle, viviparous, vivific, vinolent, verjuice, vellicate, velleity and 1193 more...
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Words!
quixotic, lugubrious, laconic, terse, diaphanous, truculent, solipsism, meretricious, recondite, salacious, avuncular, obdurate and 229 more...
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Neology
neology, du jour, monanthous, corf, schuss, cladophyll, laniferous, astatic, dahabeah, vibrissa, resupinate, almandine and 77 more...
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sexcess
Cyprian, lascivious, concupiscent, libidinous, salacious, licentious, wanton, profligate, fescennine, orgiastic, prurient, seamy and 2 more...
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Laiane's Words
ampersand, antediluvian, diaspora, canny, egregious, illusory, torrid, abeyance, banal, ennui, tapir, chortle and 39 more...
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JamesE's Words
pernicious, fescennine, titillate, stentorian, odalisque, obelisk, sibilant, priapic, henceforth, insouciant, crwth, cwm and 33 more...
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October List
sposh, jowlop, slampamp, spot rump, finikin, livedo, nidget, mulmul, mugient, olm, pawl, dapifer and 76 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fescennine.
laiane I actually heard this for the first time on an episode of Dr. Who, "The Caves of Androzani" (With Peter Davison as the 5th doctor, for you fans). I only knew its spelling because I had subtitles turned on. Mar 11, 2012
pavonine adj.
Licentious; obscene.
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Latin Fescennnus, of Fescennia, a town of ancient Etruria known for its licentious poetry.
Aug 16, 2008