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fescennine

American  
[fes-uh-nahyn, -nin] / ˈfɛs əˌnaɪn, -nɪn /

adjective

  1. scurrilous; licentious; obscene.

    fescennine mockery.
Fescennine British  
/ ˈfɛsɪˌnaɪn /

adjective

  1. rare scurrilous or obscene

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of fescennine

1595–1605; < Latin Fescennīnus of, belonging to Fescennia, a town in Etruria noted for jesting and scurrilous verse; -ine 1

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Here rang out the joyous conversation, interspersed with the Latin epithalamium of some impromptu poet, or the fescennine verses of a German minnesinger.

From Peter the Priest by Jókai, Mór

From Suckling we should have had a bantering playfulness, or a fescennine gaiety, equally unsuited to the subject.

From The Lucasta Poems by Lovelace, Richard

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.