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• fescennine
  fescennine

  adjective

  scurrilous; licentious; obscene.
• Fescennine
  Fescennine

  adjective

  scurrilous or obscene

fescennine

American  

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

adjective

1. scurrilous; licentious; obscene.

   fescennine mockery.

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Fescennine British  

/ ˈfɛsɪˌnaɪn /

adjective

1. rare scurrilous or obscene

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Etymology

Origin of fescennine

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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fescennine Fescennine

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

From The Lucasta Poems by Richard Lovelace

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 Mór Jókai

And these 'Saturae' had been themselves developed partly out of the older Fescennine dialogues—the rustic raillery of the vintage and the harvest-home,—partly out of mimetic dances imported from Etruria.

From The Roman Poets of the Republic by W. Y. Sellar

Fescennina, etc.: the rude Fescennine farce grew from rites like these, where rustic taunts were hurled in alternate verse; and the pleasing license, tolerated from year to year, gambolled, etc.

From Social life at Rome in the Age of Cicero by W. Warde Fowler

Fescennine, fes′e-nin, adj. scurrilous.—Fescennine verses consisted of dialogues in rude extempore verses, generally in Saturnian measure, in which the parties rallied and ridiculed one another.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various

These are of the Fescennine ranks and of Aequi Falisci, these of Soracte's fortresses and the fields of Flavina, and Ciminus' lake and hill, and the groves of Capena.

From The Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil

As for humour, such as was indigenous in the country, it was only represented by a few Saturnian snatches, some Fescennine banterings at weddings and harvest-homes, and rude pantomimic performances also originating in Etruria.

From History of English Humour, Vol. 1 With an Introduction upon Ancient Humour by Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange

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