Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Preoccupied with sex and sexual desire; lustful.
  • adjective Obscene; indecent.
  • adjective Obsolete Wicked.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Ignorant; unlearned; illiterate.
  • Lay, as opposed to clerical.
  • Rude; homely; uncultivated.
  • Worthless; useless.
  • Bad; vile; vicious; wicked.
  • Lustful; wanton; lascivious; libidinous.
  • Synonyms See list under lascivious.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Not clerical; laic; laical; hence, unlearned; simple.
  • adjective Archaic Belonging to the lower classes, or the rabble; idle and lawless; bad; vicious.
  • adjective Given to the promiscuous indulgence of lust; dissolute; lustful; libidinous.
  • adjective Suiting, or proceeding from, lustfulness; involving unlawful sexual desire.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Lascivious, sexually promiscuous, rude.
  • adjective obsolete Lay; not clerical.
  • adjective obsolete Uneducated.
  • adjective obsolete Vulgar, common; typical of the lower orders.
  • adjective obsolete Base, vile, reprehensible.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective driven by lust; preoccupied with or exhibiting lustful desires
  • adjective suggestive of or tending to moral looseness

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English leued, unlearned, lay, lascivious, from Old English lǣwede, ignorant, lay.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English leud, leued, lewed ("unlearned, lay, lascivious"), from Old English lǣwede ("unlearned, ignorant, lay"), of obscure origin; most likely a derivative of the past participle of lǣwan ("to reveal, betray") in the sense of "exposed as being unlearned" or "easily betrayed, clueless", from Proto-Germanic *lēwijanan (“to betray”), from Proto-Germanic *lēwan (“an opportunity, cause”), from Proto-Indo-European *lēw- (“to leave”). Cognate with Old High German gilāen, firlāen ("to betray"), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌻𐌴𐍅𐌾𐌰𐌽 (galēwjan, "to give over, betray"), Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐍅, 𐌻𐌴𐍅𐌰 (lēw, lēwa, "an opportunity, cause").

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