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Libertine

 - 4 dictionary results

lib⋅er⋅tine

  [lib-er-teen, -tin]
Use Libertine in a Sentence
–noun
1. a person who is morally or sexually unrestrained, esp. a dissolute man; a profligate; rake.
2. a freethinker in religious matters.
3. a person freed from slavery in ancient Rome.
–adjective
4. free of moral, esp. sexual, restraint; dissolute; licentious.
5. freethinking in religious matters.
6. Archaic. unrestrained; uncontrolled.
Origin:
1350–1400; ME libertyn < L lībertīnus of a freedman (adj.), freedman (n.), equiv. to lībert(us) freedman (appar. by reanalysis of liber-tās liberty as libert-ās) + -īnus -ine 1

Synonyms:
1. roué, debauchee, lecher, sensualist. 4. amoral, sensual, lascivious, lewd.

Antonyms:
1. prude.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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lib·er·tine   (lĭb'ər-tēn')   
n.  

  1. One who acts without moral restraint; a dissolute person.

  2. One who defies established religious precepts; a freethinker.

adj.  Morally unrestrained; dissolute.

[Middle English, freedman, from Latin lībertīnus, from lībertus, from līber, free; see leudh- in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

libertine 
1382, "an emancipated slave," from L. libertinus "member of a class of freedmen," from libertus "one's freedmen," from liber "free" (see liberal). Sense of "freethinker" is first recorded 1563, from Fr. libertin (1542) originally the name given to certain Protestant sects in France and the Low Countries. Meaning "dissolute or licentious person" first recorded 1593; the darkening of meaning being perhaps due to misunderstanding of L. libertinus in Acts vi.9.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Bible Dictionary

Libertine

found only Acts 6:9, one who once had been a slave, but who had been set at liberty, or the child of such a person. In this case the name probably denotes those descendants of Jews who had been carried captives to Rome as prisoners of war by Pompey and other Roman generals in the Syrian wars, and had afterwards been liberated. In A.D. 19 these manumitted Jews were banished from Rome. Many of them found their way to Jerusalem, and there established a synagogue.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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