salaciousness
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Noun[edit]
salaciousness (usually uncountable, plural salaciousnesses)
- The state or characteristic of being salacious.
- 1774, Oliver Goldsmith, An History of the Earth and Animated Nature[1], London: J. Nourse, Volume 5, Part 2, Chapter 2, p. 170:
- The cock, from his salaciousness, is allowed to be a short lived animal; but how long these birds live, if left to themselves, is not yet well ascertained by any historian.
- 1895, Frank Harris, “The Best Man in Garotte”, in Elder Conklin and Other Stories[2], London: Heinemann, page 160:
- […] he began a tale which cannot be retold here, but which delighted the boys as much by its salaciousness as by its vivacity.
- 1920, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 13, in Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC, page 158:
- I giggle with the most revolting salaciousness over La Vie Parisienne, when I get hold of one in Chicago, yet I shouldn’t even try to hold your hand.
- 2002, Charles M. Joseph, chapter 2, in Stravinsky and Balanchine: A Journey of Invention, New Haven: Yale University Press, page 51:
- Fokine did not mince words in describing the infamous closing moments of the ballet [L’Après-midi d’un faune], charging that Diaghilev used Nijinski as nothing more than a tool to shock his audience. He hinted that scandal was Diaghilev’s goal, for salaciousness would attract an audience.
- 2010, Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question[3], New York: Bloomsbury, Part One, Chapter 3, p. 20:
- […] he actually used the word erotic, snagging his tongue on it as though the salaciousness of the syllables themselves was enough to arouse him […]