fornication
[fawr-ni-key-shuh n]
- voluntary sexual intercourse between two unmarried persons or two persons not married to each other.
- Bible. idolatry.
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Origin of fornication
1300–50; Middle English fornicacioun < Late Latin fornicātiōn- (stem of fornicātiō). See fornicate1, -ion
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for fornication
Contemporary Examples
Yes, cities—those reviled warts on the American imagination, the ancient sources of all sin and fornication.
Historical Examples
Fines for adultery and fornication belong to the king, not to the bishop.
The Swedish Revolution Under Gustavus VasaPaul Barron Watson
If ye touch at the islands, Mr. Flask, beware of fornication.
Moby Dick; or The WhaleHerman Melville
The crimes of fornication and adultery are very severely punished.
Modern PersiaMooshie G. Daniel
Then said they to him, We are not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
God's Plan with MenT. T. (Thomas Theodore) Martin
And I gave her time that she should repent; and she willeth not to repent of her fornication.
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of RevelationWilliam Milligan
fornication
- voluntary sexual intercourse outside marriage
- law voluntary sexual intercourse between two persons of the opposite sex, where one is or both are unmarried
- Bible sexual immorality in general, esp adultery
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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 fornication
n.
c.1300, from Old French fornicacion (12c.), from Late Latin fornicationem (nominative fornicatio), noun of action from past participle stem of fornicari "fornicate," from Latin fornix (genitive fornicis) "brothel" (Juvenal, Horace), originally "arch, vaulted chamber" (Roman prostitutes commonly solicited from under the arches of certain buildings), from fornus "oven of arched or domed shape." Strictly, "voluntary sex between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman;" extended in the Bible to adultery.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
fornication
(fôr′nĭ-kā′shən)- Sexual intercourse between partners who are not married to each other.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.