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lubricity

[loo-bris-i-tee]
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noun, plural lu·bric·i·ties.
  1. oily smoothness, as of a surface; slipperiness.
  2. ability to lubricate; capacity for lubrication: the wonderful lubricity of this new oil.
  3. instability; shiftiness; fleeting nature: the lubricity of fame and fortune.
  4. lewdness; lustfulness: lasciviousness; salaciousness.
  5. something that arouses lasciviousness, especially pornography.
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Origin of lubricity

1485–95; earlier lubrycyte lewdness < Medieval Latin lubricitās lechery, Late Latin: slipperiness. See lubric, -ity
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for lubricity

Historical Examples

  • A young constitution still resisted the inroads of lubricity.

    The Magic Skin

    Honore de Balzac

  • The works of our standard authors in literature abound in lubricity.

  • Dawn was a Mordvinian girl; in Australia she was a lubra addicted to lubricity.

    Modern Mythology

    Andrew Lang

  • A fish adorns his flag, and he rides a parrot or sparrow, emblematic of lubricity.

  • He is teres et rotundas; strokes fly from the lubricity of his polish, and the shiftings of his circular formation.

    Tomlinsoniana

    Edward Bulwer-Lytton

British Dictionary definitions for lubricity

lubricity

noun
  1. formal, or literary lewdness or salaciousness
  2. rare smoothness or slipperiness
  3. capacity to lubricate
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Word Origin

C15 (lewdness), C17 (slipperiness): from Old French lubricité, from Medieval Latin lubricitās, from Latin, from lūbricus slippery
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 lubricity

n.

late 15c., "lasciviousness," from Middle French lubricité or directly from Latin lubricitatem (nominative lubricitas), from lubricus "slippery" (see lubricant (adj.)). Sense of "oiliness, smoothness" is from 1540s; figurative sense of "shiftiness" is from 1610s.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper