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View synonyms for incest

incest

[ in-sest ]

noun

  1. sexual intercourse between closely related persons.
  2. the crime of sexual intercourse, cohabitation, or marriage between persons within the degrees of consanguinity or affinity wherein marriage is legally forbidden.


incest

/ ˈɪnsɛst /

noun

  1. sexual intercourse between two persons commonly regarded as too closely related to marry
“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


incest

  1. Sexual relations between relatives who are forbidden by law to marry; for example, between father and daughter or mother and son.


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Notes

Though each society has its own system for determining the range of people who fall into this category, every society has an incest taboo of some sort.
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Word History and Origins

Origin of incest1

1175–1225; Middle English < Latin incestus (noun) sexual impurity, derivative of incestus (adj.) profane, sexually impure ( in- in- 3 + -cestus combining form of castus chaste ), by analogy with v. nouns derived with -tus
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Word History and Origins

Origin of incest1

C13: from Latin incestus incest (from adj: impure, defiled), from in- 1+ castus chaste
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Example Sentences

It soon becomes apparent, though, that the ongoing nonconsensual incest that sets an increasingly ugly chain of events in motion is of a different sort.

A man buried in a huge, roughly 5,200-year-old Irish stone tomb was the product of incest, a new study finds.

Socially sanctioned incest tends to be rare throughout history but is known from instances of royal inbreeding.

Mating between brothers and sisters, for example, occurred in some ancient societies with ruling families headed by men regarded as gods not subject to human incest taboos.

Only the Newgrange man, who was interred in the largest and most impressive structure, had inherited genetic markers of incest.

Incest appears to have had in his eyes peculiar charms; for he offered himself three times to three different sisters-in-law.

Incest is, like many other incorrect things, a very poetical circumstance.

Incest was originally a requirement to make it possible for human beings to multiply.

Incest is common, in Switzerland especially, among the inhabitants of isolated mountain chalets.

Incest and infanticide are as common among them as among the lower animals.

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