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fornication - 8 dictionary results

for⋅ni⋅ca⋅tion

[fawr-ni-key-shuhn]
–noun
1. voluntary sexual intercourse between two unmarried persons or two persons not married to each other.
2. Bible. idolatry.

Origin:
1300–50; ME fornicacioun < LL fornicātiōn- (s. of fornicātiō). See fornicate 1 , -ion


for⋅ni⋅ca⋅to⋅ry [fawr-ni-kuh-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee] , adjective
for·ni·ca·tion   (fôr'nĭ-kā'shən)   
n.  Sexual intercourse between partners who are not married to each other.
Word History: The word fornication had a lowly beginning suitable to what has long been the low moral status of the act to which it refers. The Latin word fornix, from which fornicātiō, the ancestor of fornication, is derived, meant "a vault, an arch." The term also referred to a vaulted cellar or similar place where prostitutes plied their trade. This sense of fornix in Late Latin yielded the verb fornicārī, "to commit fornication," from which is derived fornicātiō, "whoredom, fornication." Our word is first recorded in Middle English about 1303.

Fornication

For`ni*ca"tion\, n. [F. fornication, L. fornicatio.]

1. Unlawful sexual intercourse on the part of an unmarried person; the act of such illicit sexual intercourse between a man and a woman as does not by law amount to adultery.

Note: In England, the offense, though cognizable in the ecclesiastical courts, was not at common law subject to secular prosecution. In the United States it is indictable in some States at common law, in others only by statute. --Whartyon.

2. (Script.) (a) Adultery. (b) Incest. (c) Idolatry.

fornication 
c.1300, from O.Fr. fornication, from L.L. fornicationem (nom. fornicatio), from fornicari "fornicate," from L. fornix (gen. fornicis) "brothel," 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.

Main Entry: for·ni·ca·tion
Pronunciation: "for-n&-'kA-sh&n
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin fornicatio, from fornicare to have intercourse with prostitutes, from Latin fornic- fornix arch, vault, brothel
: consensual sexual intercourse between a man and esp. single woman who are not married to each other; also : the crime of engaging in fornication —compare ADULTERY
NOTE: Where still considered a crime, fornication is classified as a misdemeanor.

Main Entry: for·ni·ca·tion
Pronunciation: "for-n&-'kA-sh&n
Function: noun
: consensual sexual intercourse between two personsnot married to each other

fornication for·ni·ca·tion (fôr'nĭ-kā'shən)
n.
Sexual intercourse between partners who are not married to each other.


for'ni·cate' v.

Fornication

in every form of it was sternly condemned by the Mosaic law (Lev. 21:9; 19:29; Deut. 22:20, 21, 23-29; 23:18; Ex. 22:16). (See ADULTERY.) But this word is more frequently used in a symbolical than in its ordinary sense. It frequently means a forsaking of God or a following after idols (Isa. 1:2; Jer. 2:20; Ezek. 16; Hos. 1:2; 2:1-5; Jer. 3:8,9).

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