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fescennine

[fes-uh-nahyn, -nin]
adjective
  1. scurrilous; licentious; obscene: fescennine mockery.

Origin of fescennine

1595–1605; < Latin Fescennīnus of, belonging to Fescennia, a town in Etruria noted for jesting and scurrilous verse; see -ine1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for fescennine

Historical Examples of fescennine

  • A fescennine temperament is too often allied with religiosity.

  • The principal constituent element in this Fescennine poetry was obscene mockery.

  • But just as it takes two to make a quarrel, so the obscene mockery of the Fescennine verses required two principals.

  • Fescennine verses of the Romans, which were used at weddings and triumphs, were intended to ward off ill luck.

    Folkways

    William Graham Sumner

  • The original Fescennine verse appears, from the testimony of Horace, to have been in metrical dialogue.

British Dictionary definitions for fescennine

Fescennine

adjective
  1. rare scurrilous or obscene

Word Origin for Fescennine

C17: from Latin Fescennīnus of Fescennia, a city in Etruria noted for the production of mocking or obscene verse
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
Word Origin and History for fescennine

Fescennine

adj.

"vulgar, obscene, scurrilous," from Latin Fescenninus (versus), a rude form of dramatic or satiric verse, from Fescennia, city in Etruria, noted for such productions.

The Fescennine Songs were the origin of the Satire, the only important species of literature not derived from the Greeks, and altogether peculiar to Italy. These Fescennine Songs were rude dialogues, in which the country people assailed and ridiculed one another in extempore verses, and which were introduced as an amusement in various festivals. [William Smith, "A Smaller History of Rome," London, 1870]
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper