fornication
[fawr-ni-key-shuh n]
noun
voluntary sexual intercourse between two unmarried persons or two persons not married to each other.
Bible. idolatry.
RELATED WORDS
Nearby words
- fornacis,
- fornax,
- fornenst,
- forney,
- fornicate,
- fornicator,
- fornicatory,
- fornicatrix,
- forniciform,
- fornix
Origin of fornication
1300–50; Middle English fornicacioun < Late Latin fornicātiōn- (stem of fornicātiō). See fornicate1, -ion
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Examples from the Web for fornication
fornication
noun
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
fornication
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.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
fornication
[fôr′nĭ-kā′shən]
n.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.