| 释义 |
obscenity|əbˈsɛnɪtɪ|
[ad. L. obscēnitās, f. obscēn-us obscene: perh. immed. ad. F. obscénité (1511 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
Obscene quality or character: a. Impurity, indecency, lewdness (esp. of language); in pl. obscene words or matters.
1608Willet Hexapla Exod. 831 In many of their..idoll seruices..they vsed much obscenitie. 1643Milton Divorce ii. iv, Worse..then the worst obscenities of heathen superstition. 1709Pope Ess. Crit. 530 No pardon vile Obscenity should find Tho' wit and art conspire to move your mind. 1829Scott Demonol. vii. 208 The..grossest obscenities ever impressed on paper. 1893Ch. Times 6 Oct. 995/3 Pictures of foul obscenity not to be surpassed in Pompeii. 1971J. Trevelyan in Mind & Mental Health Winter 6/1 My own inclination is to apply the word ‘pornography’ to written or visual material concerned solely with sex, and the word ‘obscenity’ as a more general term covering pornography and also other things, especially violence. This view was held by D. H. Lawrence who suggested that obscenity was a matter of personal opinion, whereas pornography was something specific; he defined it as making sex dirty for money. 1972Police Rev. 1 Dec. 1557/1 Mr. Chuter Ede..asked the Commissioner whether the Yard's obscenity squad—as it was then— were judges of literature and art?
b. Foulness, loathsomeness; in pl. foul acts, dirty work.
a1618Sylvester Tobacco Battered 712 Consuming more, in their Obscure Obscænity, On Smoak and Smock, with their appendent Vanity, Then their brave Elders did, when they maintain'd Honour at home, and forrain Glory gain'd. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. iii. (1651) 323 Dishes..nastily dressed by slovenly cooks, that after their obscenities, never wash their bawdy hands. 1807C. Buchanan in Academy (1876) 21 Oct. 410/1 One of the victims..was a well-made young man... He danced for a while before the idol [Juggernaut],..then rushing suddenly to the wheels he shed his blood under the tower of obscenity. 1940Times 19 Apr. 7/2 What one American newspaper stigmatizes as the ‘obscenity’ of the attack upon Norway. 1970Times 21 Mar. 3/1 The obscenity of racial hatred has been vigorously propagated over the last few years. 1975New Yorker 25 Aug. 31/3 We had said ‘so long’ to the U.S.A., had bade farewell to..the obscenity of American life in our time. 1977‘E. McBain’ Long Time no See xiii. 217 One-third of all the homicides committed in this city involved a victim and a murderer who didn't even know each other... Perfect strangers..locked in the ultimate intimate obscenity. |