pudeur

English

Etymology

From French pudeur, from Latin pudor. Doublet of pudor.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pjuːˈdɜː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /pjuˈdɝ/

Noun

pudeur (countable and uncountable, plural pudeurs)

1. A sense of modesty or reserve, especially as relating to sexual matters.
   • 1861, Caroline Clive, chapter VII, in Why Paul Ferroll Killed His Wife, pages 137–8:

     Leslie felt confident enough of that also, but the pudeur of composition (when the author has written what he felt) made him shrink from so much talk about it.

   • 1868, Paschal Beverly Randolph, chapter X, in After Death: Or, Disembodied Man, page 132:

     In preceding pages I have mooted a long-contested point of great importance, promising to recur it at a subsequent stage of this essay. I do so now because the pudeur of others has hitherto prevented its just discussion.

   • 1994, Janet Lungstrum, edited by Peter J. Burgard, Nietzsche Writing Woman/Woman Writing Nietzsche: The Sexual Dialectic of Palingenesis, quoted in Nietzche and the Feminine, →ISBN, page 152:

     Nietzsche, the conquering Dionysus-creator, thus confesses to having the pudeurs of a blushing bride, or of his faking Weib, when she “gives herself.”

Anagrams

• Purdue

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pudor (“modesty, chastity”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /py.dœʁ/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

Noun

pudeur f (plural pudeurs)

1. sense of modesty or reserve; shame

   Antonym: impudeur

   • (Can we date this quote?), Voltaire:

     La pudeur passe, et l’amour seul demeure.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. sense of decency, chastity, propriety
   • 30 janvier 1901, Jules Renard, (journal):

     La rose a la couleur de la pudeur mais elle a aussi celle du mensonge.

Derived terms

• attentat à la pudeur

Related terms

• pudique
• pudibond

Further reading

• “pudeur”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• dupeur