impiety

English

Etymology

From Old French impieté, from Latin impietas, from in- (“not”) + pietas (“piety”), from pius (“pious, devout”) + -tās (“-ty, -dom”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aɪɪti

Noun

impiety (usually uncountable, plural impieties)

1. (uncountable) The state of being impious.
2. (countable) An impious act.
   • 1661, Joseph Glanvill, chapter XIX, in The Vanity of Dogmatizing: Or Confidence in Opinions. […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […], →OCLC, page 184:

     [I]f the world and motion were not from Eternity, then God was Idle; were all the Aſſertions of Ariſtotle, which Theology pronounceth impieties. Which yet we need not ſtrange at from one, of whom a Father ſaith, Nec Deum coluit nec curavit [he neither worshipped nor cared for God]: […]

3. (uncountable) The lack of respect for a god or something sacred.

Synonyms

• (state of being impious): ungodliness
• (impious behavior): ungodliness
• (lack of respect): disrespect, disregard (more general)

Translations

the state of being impious

• Bulgarian: неблагочестивост f (neblagočestivost)
• French: impiété (fr) f
• German: Pietätlosigkeit (de) f
• Greek: ανοσιότητα (el) f (anosiótita)
• Irish: aindiagacht f, éagráifeacht f
• Lithuanian: bedieviškumas m
• Spanish: impiedad (es) f
• Swedish: ogudaktighet (sv) c

an impious act

• German: Pietätlosigkeit (de) f
• Greek: ανοσιότητα (el) f (anosiótita)

  Ancient: ἀσέβημα n (asébēma)

• Spanish: impiedad (es) f

lack of respect for a god or something sacred

• Bulgarian: безбожие (bg) n (bezbožie)
• Irish: aindiagacht f, éagráifeacht f
• Russian: нечестивость (ru) f (nečestivostʹ), непочтительность (ru) f (nepočtitelʹnostʹ)
• Spanish: impiedad (es) f
• Swedish: hänsynslöshet (sv) c, obarmhärtighet (sv) c