fornication

English

Etymology

From Middle English fornicacioun, from Old French fornicacion, from Latin fornicātiō, from fornix (“brothel”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: fôr'nĭ-kā'shən, IPA^(key): /ˌfɔɹnɪˈkeɪʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

fornication (countable and uncountable, plural fornications)

1. Sexual intercourse, especially on the part of an unmarried person.
2. (law) The act of such illicit sexual intercourse between a man and a woman which does not by law amount to adultery.
   • 1589 or 90, Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta, Act IV:

     FRIAR BARNARDINE. Thou hast committed—

     BARABAS. Fornication: but that was in another country;

     And besides, the wench is dead.

   • 1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act V, Scene 1:

     I am the sister of one Claudio,

     Condemned upon the act of fornication

     To lose his head, condemned by Angelo

   • 1611, King James Version, Galatians 5:19–21:

     Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:copulation

Derived terms

• fornicatory

Translations

sexual intercourse, especially on the part of an unmarried person

• Arabic: زِنًى (ar) m (zinan), سِفَاح m (sifāḥ)
• Bulgarian: блудство (bg) n (bludstvo), прелюбодея́ние (bg) n (preljubodejánie)
• Catalan: fornicació (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 通奸 (zh) (tōngjiān), 姦淫／奸淫 (zh) (jiānyín), 奸淫 (zh) (jiānyín) , 亂倫／乱伦 (zh) (luànlún), 乱伦 (zh) (luànlún)

• Danish: utugt c
• Dutch: ontucht (nl) f
• Finnish: fornikaatio (fi)
• French: fornication (fr) f
• German: Unzucht (de) f
• Indonesian: fornikasi (id)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 姦淫 (かんいん, kan'in)
• Korean: 간음 (ko) (ganeum) (姦淫 (ko))
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: utukt m or f

  Nynorsk: utukt f

• Polish: rozpusta (pl) f
• Portuguese: fornicação (pt) f
• Russian: блуд (ru) m (blud), внебра́чная связь f (vnebráčnaja svjazʹ), прелюбодея́ние (ru) n (preljubodejánije), распу́тство (ru) n (raspútstvo)
• Spanish: fornicación (es) f
• Swedish: otukt (sv) c
• Tagalog: pakikiapid

the act of such illicit sexual intercourse between a man and a woman which does not by law amount to adultery

• Dutch: ontucht (nl) f
• Finnish: fornikaatio (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: fornicação (pt) f
• Russian: блуд (ru) m (blud)