libertinen.adj.
/ˈlɪbətiːn/, U.S. /ˈlɪbərˌtin/ A. n.† 4. At King's College, Aberdeen: a student who has no bursary. Obsolete.
1. † b. A person who possesses the freedom of a city; a freeman. Obsolete. rare.
a. Roman History. An emancipated slave; a freedman.Now only with reference to Acts 6:9 as the name of a particular group of Jews (see quots. c1384 and 1727); an alternative reading Λιβυστίνων ‘Libyans’ (for Λιβερτίνων) has been suggested ( Notes & Queries (1865) 24 June 505/1).
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > lack of subjection > freedom or liberty > liberation > [noun] > from slavery > freedman
libertinec1384
freedman1587
manumit1637
manumiss1658
neodamode1808
recaptive1832
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Deeds vi. 9 Summe risen of the synagoge, that was clepid of Libertyns [L. Libertinorum].
?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl.) II. 313 Fre men vsede rynges of golde, libertynes [L. libertini] rynges of syluyr.
1533 J. Bellenden tr. Livy Hist. Rome (1822) iv. 315 Quhidder ane servand or ane libertine war maid consull.
1541 T. Elyot Image of Gouernance xi. f. 21 Lybertine, that is to saye, any man of a bonde auncetour.
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. 411 A mean commoner of Rome, descended from the race of Libertines or Slaues newly infranchised.
1631 J. Selden Titles of Honor (ed. 2) Ep. Ded. As if one could be put into the state of a Libertine, without a former seruitude!
1644 Jus Pop. 52 Who could more powerfully sway in the Palace than Eunuchs, Grooms and Libertines?
1726 J. Ayliffe Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani 24 There are some Persons forbidden to be Accusers..as Libertines against their Patrons.
1727 N. Lardner Credibility Gospel Hist. I. i. iii. §4 232 The Libertines here spoken of are Jews, or Proselytes of the jewish religion, who had been Slaves to Roman Masters, and had been made free, or the children of such.
1824 J. Stephen Slavery Brit. W. India Colonies Delineated (new ed.) I. vi. 377 The slaves speedily ceased to bear a dangerous proportion in number to the free citizens and libertines of the empire.
1909 Bible Student & Teacher Jan. 78/2 The Wrangling Libertines and the Jewish Rulers..accomplished by their combined efforts what neither could have effected alone.
1991 Jrnl. Biblical Lit. 110 636 Some of the members of the synagogue of the Libertines..instigated others to accuse him [sc. Stephen] falsely of opposing Moses and God.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > legal right > right of specific class, person, or place > [noun] > one possessing freedom of a city or company
freeman1387
baron1576
charterer?1592
libertine?1611
livery1630
liveryman1641
?1611 G. Chapman tr. Homer Iliads xvi. 50 He..vsde me like a fugitiue; an Inmate in a towne, That is no citie libertine, nor capable of their gowne.
2.
a. Originally: a member of any of various antinomian groups which arose in France and elsewhere in continental Europe in the early 16th cent. Later more generally: a free-thinker in religion; a nonconformist. Now historical.Members of such groups were particularly attacked by Calvin, for example in his treatise Contre la Secte Phantastique et Furieuse des Libertins qui se nomment Spirituelz (1545).
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > free thought > [noun] > person
libertine1547
free-thinker?1700
liberalist1804
society > faith > sect > Christianity > other sects and movements > antinomianism > [noun] > libertine
libertine1547
1547 J. Hooper Answer Detection Deuyls Sophistrye sig. X3v Beware he fall not ffrom one yle into awarse yle ffrom à papyst to be à libertyne.
1563 J. Foxe Actes & Monuments 1200/2 Euen the infidels, Turkes, Iewes, Anabaptistes, & libertines desyre felicitye as wel as ye Christians.
1589 in Acts Privy Council (1898) XVII. 424 In those Lowe Countryes there are Sectaryes, as Annabaptystes, Lybertines, and soche lyke.
1604 R. Cawdrey Table Alphabet. Libertine, loose in religion, one that thinks he may doe what he listeth.
1612 T. Taylor Αρχὴν Ἁπάντων: Comm. Epist. Paul to Titus ii. 14 Neither wanted their Libertins in those daies, that..thought They might doe what they listed.
1646 P. Bulkley Gospel-covenant iv. 297 The old plea of loose Libertines in the Apostles time; I have faith, saith one, and though I have no works, yet my faith will save me.
1698 J. Norris Pract. Disc. Divine Subj. IV. 254 The Libertins, and Profane Spirits of the Age are apt to Reason, or rather Mutiny against the Ways of God.
1713 R. Fiddes Pract. Disc. II. xv. 360 In Answer to this, the Libertine says, That these Fears we speak of, are not natural, but the Effect of Prejudice and Education.
1762 O. Goldsmith Life R. Nash 48 People of all ways of thinking, even from the libertine to the methodist.
1855 D. Brewster Mem. Life I. Newton (new ed.) II. xviii. 164 Flamsteed never scrupled to denounce Halley as a libertine and an infidel.
1874 J. Parker Paraclete xvii. 283 The intellectual libertine who denies everything that cannot be certified by the senses.
1929 Jrnl. Philos. 26 426 When he undertook to convince the Free Thinkers and libertines of his generation, he had to confess that their unbelief was not an affair of the reason.
1972 Yale French Stud. No. 47. 151 Marguerite had been exposed in succession to some of the writings of Luther, Calvin and the spiritual Libertines.
2002 J. Boitano Polemics of Libertine Conversion 16 Other libertines..advanced an Epicurean philosophy, which directly contradicted the pious doctrines of the Church.
b. A person who follows his or her own inclinations; one who is not restricted by convention or tradition. Also in figurative context.In later use chiefly with allusion to Shakespeare (see quot. a1616).
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > lack of subjection > freedom or liberty > freedom of action or from restraint > [noun] > one who acts freely
libertine1612
free agent1649
thelemite1656
unreserved1756
volent1768
unrestrained1770
free-wheeler1938
1612 T. Taylor Αρχὴν Ἁπάντων: Comm. Epist. Paul to Titus iii. 1 Romish policie, that they might become the absolute libertines of the world..hath withdrawn the neckes of the clergie from vnder Ciuill Power.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry V (1623) i. i. 49 When he speakes, The Ayre, a Charter'd Libertine, is still. View more context for this quotation
1642 D. Rogers Naaman 116 Those Pharisees in the Gospel..Christ himselfe was a libertine to them and their strictnesse.
a1656 Bp. J. Hall Shaking of Olive-tree (1660) ii. 27 What is this but..to professe our selves not Libertines, but licentiate of disorder.
1699 M. Lister Journey to Paris (new ed.) 39 Though Rubens in his History is too much a Libertine in this respect, yet there is in this very place, which we now describe, much truth in the habit of his principal Figures.
1749 T. Smollett tr. A. R. Le Sage Gil Blas IV. x. x. 97 My tender years made him believe that I was some little libertine, who had run away from his parents, after having robbed them.
1870 C. Dickens Edwin Drood iv. 25 He is the chartered libertine of the place.
1911 Cent. Mag. Nov. 154/2 I trod on the grass. There was no sign up, prohibiting me. It never occurs to the German mind that any one could be such a licensed libertine as to tread on grass.
1926 Times 18 Nov. 10/2 The Trade Union Act of 1913..thus extended their immunity, until they have become the chartered libertines of the law.
1992 M. Jezer Abbie Hoffman (1993) xiii. 293 Being a libertine when it came to drugs, he was opposed to Jackson's antidrug crusade.
3. A person (typically a man) who is not restrained by morality, esp. with regard to sexual relations; a person of dissolute or promiscuous habits.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > [noun] > person > male
franion1571
Corinthian1575
colt1584
libertine1584
tit1601
night-sneaker1611
highboy1667
man of the town1671
town bull1709
gay deceiver1710
Lothario1756
playboy1829
gay dog1847
girlie-man1897
lizard1935
player1968
mack daddy1991
1584 in Cal. State Papers Scotl. (1913) VII. 219 Oure bisschopis of quham sum ar gros libertynis and bely godis.
1593 G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation 45 The whole brood of venereous Libertines, that knowe no reason, but appetite, no Lawe but Luste.
1593 T. Nashe Christs Teares 29 b Twenty thousand of these dreggy lees of Libertines hiu'd vnto him in a moment.
1604 W. Shakespeare Hamlet i. iii. 49 A puft, and reckles libertine Himselfe the primrose path of dalience treads. View more context for this quotation
a1640 P. Massinger Guardian ii. v. 20 in 3 New Playes (1655) The plump Dutch Fro, the stately Dame of Spain, The Roman Libertine, and spritetful Tuscan.
1713 N. Rowe Jane Shore i That man the lawless libertine may rove, Free and unquestion'd through the wilds of love.
1750 S. Johnson Rambler No. 77. ⁋14 The giddy libertine, or drunken ravisher.
1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth ii, in Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. II. 63 Since when is it..that the principal libertine has altered his morals so much?
1855 W. H. Prescott Hist. Reign Philip II of Spain I. i. v. 153 His life..was that of a libertine.
1916 ‘P. Myron’ Miss Amer. Dollars i. viii. 46 I never have been able to believe that she [sc. Sappho] was a libertine.
1957 W. Fowlie Guide Contemp. French Lit. ii. 55 Did he live like a monk or like a libertine?
1998 N.Y. Mag. 4 May 128/2 No mere heartless libertine willing to tell a woman anything to get her into bed.
ΚΠ
1757 Ld. Glenbervie Diaries (1928) II. 363 I was matriculate as a Libertine in the College and University of King's College.
1782 in T. Orem Descr. of Chanonry in Old Aberdeen in Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica No. 3. 175 The janitor..hath twenty shillings Scots from every bursar, and two shillings and six pence sterling from libertines.
1818 Kennedy Ann. Aberd. II. 392 Since the original foundation of the college, the students have been distinguished by the titles of bursars, and libertines, or free scholars.
B. adj.
1. Characteristic of or resembling a libertine (sense A. 3); dissolute, licentious.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > [adjective]
golec888
canga1225
light?c1225
wooinga1382
nicea1387
riota1400
wantonc1400
wrenec1400
lachesc1450
loose?a1500
licentious1555
libertine1560
prostitute1569
riggish1569
wide1574
slipper1581
slippery1586
sportive1595
gay1597
Cyprian1598
suburb1598
waggish1600
smicker1606
suburbian1606
loose-living1607
wantona1627
free-living1632
libertinous1632
loose-lived1641
Corinthian1642
akolastic1656
slight1685
fast1699
freea1731
brisk1740
shy1787
slang1818
randomc1825
fastish1832
loosish1846
slummya1860
velocious1872
fly1880
slack1951
1560 J. Knox Answer Great Nomber Blasphemous Cauillations 192 We are accused that we prouoke men to a careles and libertine life. So that by vs the people do nothing, but eate and drink and ryse vp to play.
1605 F. Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. sig. Eee4 The heathen Poets when they fall vpon a libertine passion, doe still expostulate with lawes and Moralities, as if they were opposite and malignant to Nature. View more context for this quotation
1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 114. ¶1 That Neatness and Chearfulness which attends the Table of him who lives within Compass, is wanting, and exchanged for a libertine Way of Service in all about him.
1762 E. Gibbon Misc. Wks. (1814) IV. 132 The frank libertine wit of their old stage.
1804 A. Seward Mem. Dr. Darwin 375 A band of libertine lovers..plight their promiscuous hymeneals.
a1832 J. Mackintosh Hist. Revol. Eng. (1834) i. 8 The attractions of his lively and somewhat libertine conversation were among the means by which he maintained his ground with Charles II.
1886 F. Harrison Choice Bks. 51 The Decameron..is redolent of that libertine humanism which stamps the Renascence.
1956 V. Nabokov Let. 6 Mar. in Sel. Lett. (1989) 184 I calmly lean on my conviction that it is a serious work of art, and that no court could prove it to be ‘lewd and libertine’.
1966 Life 11 Mar. 81/1 San Francisco has always been, in its graciously libertine way, the fun-loving tourist's ideal of an English-speaking Gomorrah.
1998 R. Gordon Ailments through Ages 84 Boswell was warmly welcomed in literary and libertine London.
2. Of or relating to libertines (sense A. 2a) or their views; free-thinking in religion; antinomian. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > sect > Christianity > other sects and movements > antinomianism > [adjective] > libertine
libertine?1577
?1577 J. Northbrooke Spiritus est Vicarius Christi: Treat. Dicing 16 The doctrine of the Gospell is not a Libertine doctrine.
1640 Bp. J. Hall Christian Moderation ii. 82 Even among the Christians themselves, what foule charges of libertine doctrine are layd upon them by false teachers.
1675 J. Tillotson in J. Wilkins Of Princ. Nat. Relig. sig. A4v The pernicious Doctrines of the Antinomians, and of all other Libertine-Enthusiasts.
1702 C. Mather Magnalia Christi ii. ii. 6/2 Religion..had like to have died..through a Libertine and Brownistick Spirit.
1708 J. Swift Sentiments Church of Eng.-man i, in Misc. (1711) 99 Persons of Libertine and Atheistical Tenets.
1858 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) II. 18 The Libertine party instantly saw the opportunity afforded of turning opinion against the pastors.
1861 R. C. Trench Comm. Epist. 7 Churches Asia 84 In the Apocalypse of St. John we find these libertine errors already full blown.
1901 Expositor June 412 The libertine tendencies of Gentile Christians in Asia Minor.
1960 Church Hist. 29 430 Such mockery of the Eucharist was..duplicated in the libertine literature which did come to England.
2000 A. Mason in A. Hastings et al. Oxf. Compan. Christian Thought 261/1 Once the Libertine opposition was crushed, Calvin's personal ascendancy was seldom questioned.
3.
a. Free or unrestrained in disposition, behaviour, or language.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > lack of subjection > freedom or liberty > freedom of action or from restraint > [adjective] > in action, conduct, or habit
freec1300
unbridledc1374
riotous?1456
liberala1500
unrestrained1531
libertine1593
relaxed1623
long-waisted1647
self-abandoning1817
laissez-aller1818
self-abandoned1833
uninhibited1880
un-Victorian1908
leggo1943
zizzy1966
loose1968
1593 G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation 139 Although thatsame French Mirrour, be..stuffed with geere homely enough, fit for a Libertine & frantique Theame: yet doth it [etc.].
1631 T. Powell Tom of All Trades (1876) 167 A more libertine disposition.
1668 J. Evelyn Mem. (1857) II. 36 Amongst other libertine libels, there was..a bold petition of the poor w——s to Lady Castlemaine.
1690 W. Temple Ess. Poetry 20 in Miscellanea: 2nd Pt. There is something in the Genius of Poetry, too Libertine to be confined to so many Rules.
a1774 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued (1777) III. i. 205 The libertine ant will choose her own settlement.
1847 R. W. Emerson Poems 70 He is free and libertine, Pouring of his power the wine To every age, to every race.
1900 W. P. Ker in Stud. in European Lit. 367 He unbends his mind afterwards..; sometimes with libertine recklessness, as when he imposed the tale of Melibeus on the Canterbury pilgrims.
1971 Economist Apr. 60/2 Egan was a libertine user of slang, which leaves much of what he wrote unintelligible today.
2009 H. M. Tanner China v. 143 The generally freethinking, spontaneous-acting libertine attitude of some of the most famous scholars of the third century.
b. Of literary composition or translation: extremely free; loose.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > meaning > explanation, exposition > translation > [adjective] > free
libertine1656
free1728
liberal1778
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > copiousness > [adjective] > prolix
tedious1412
prolix?a1475
prolixtc1485
longa1525
prolixious1577
long-winded1589
long-drawn1592
wire-drawn1603
long-breatheda1628
long-spun1633
pedalian1636
oblong1643
lacinious1648
long-lunged1660
lengthened1705
libertine1710
lengthy1759
incompendious1833
lengthsome1836
spun1869
lengtheninga1872
fine-drawn1888
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > inelegance > [adjective] > incorrect
dissolute1566
licentious1589
vicious1589
incorrect1672
libertine1760
1656 A. Cowley Pindaric Odes Pref. The Grammarians perhaps will not suffer this libertine way of rendring foreign Authors to be called Translation.
1681 J. Oldham Some New Pieces never Publisht sig. a2 The Satyr and Odes of the Author..I have translated after the same libertine way.
1710 R. Steele Tatler No. 172. ⁋2 I have rambled in this Libertine Manner of Writing by way of Essay.
1760 H. Walpole Let. 3 Feb. (1840) IV. 22 The transitions are as sudden as those in Pindar, but not so libertine.
1867 N. Amer. Rev. July 129 Mr. Conington..has produced an English Æneid, of which it may be fairly said, that..its tone is not Virgilian, while the way of rendering is at times ‘libertine’ enough.
1948 PMLA 63 1195 Sir Thomas Browne, for instance, used the libertine form to express Stoic concepts.
1998 Harvard Jrnl. Asiatic Stud. 58 217 Akiko's identification of Tekkan/Hiroshi with Genji may be the root cause of her libertine translations.
4. Roman History. Emancipated from slavery; of or descended from emancipated slaves.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > lack of subjection > freedom or liberty > liberation > [adjective] > liberated > from slavery
freed1579
libertine1600
manumitted1614
enfrancheda1616
manumised1627
disenslaved1681
emancipate1785
disenthralled1848
recaptive1856
1600 P. Holland tr. Livy Rom. Hist. xxii. i. 432 The verie Libertine or enfranchised women [L. libertinae].
1795 J. Macknight Life Apostle Paul 101 in New Literal Transl. Apostolical Epist. IV 4000 of the Libertine race were transported.
1856 Methodist Rev. Jan. 89 Not even freemen, but slaves from Magna Græcia, or of libertine parentage.
1934 Classical Jrnl. 29 488 There are other officials of whom we know little except that they were of libertine stock.
1964 Classical Q. New Ser. 14 131 Men of libertine descent who inherited their patrons' tribes.
2001 S. Dixon Childhood, Class & Kin in Rom. World vii. 126 The municipal aspirations of libertine Augustales.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.adj.c1384- hemiplexy
- hemipod
- hemipode
- hemipodes
- hemipodiine
- hemipods
- hemiprism
- hemiprismatic
- hemiprotein
- hemipter
- here's looking toward you
- here's looking towards you
- here's mud
- here's mud in your eye
- here's the thing
- here's to
- here's to the skin off your nose
- here's where
- here'that's the thing
- here, there and everywhere
- here, there, all where
- here, there, and everywhere
- here-
- here-again
- here-against