Adjective.
Pronunciation: əbsiːn.
Etymology: from Latin obscenus (= adverse, filthy,
indecent). The analysis of this Latin word is disputed, its composition being
difficult to interpret.
Its
comparative and superlative may be construed with suffix –er and –est,
respectively; but also periphrastically with more and most.
1. Displeasing as being ugly, dirty, foul, unclean,
sullied or merely unpraiseworthy.
[…] some obscene animals.
Charles Dickens… Barnaby Rudge
[…] some obscene hole or garret.
Samuel Richardson… Clarissa
I held up
before him in succession the cloudy oil and furry vinegar, the clogged cayenne,
the dirty salt, the obscene dregs of soy, and the anchovy sauce
in a flannel waistcoat of decomposition.
Charles Dickens… The
Uncommercial Traveller
2.
Specially: (of erotic expression and the
person expressing it) displeasing
as being contrary to sexual bigotry or sexual repression.
Equivalents: Spanish obsceno, Italian osceno, and
French obscene.
The floor
is shabby indoor-outdoor carpet that has been stained so many times it is
difficult to determine what the original color might have been. There are
dozens of gray steel doors on either side. Some elaborately decorated.
Collages, obscene photographs.
Jack R Dunn… Hard
I now
ejaculate the most obscene words and phrases. This stimulates
my passions, increases my pleasure, and affect, I find, my partner in fucking,
who sympathetically responds similar words, heightening her pleasure and mine
as well.
Walter… My Secret Life
Words derived from OBSCENE: obscenity,
obscenely, obsceness.
