different between improper vs prurient

English

Alternative forms

• impropre (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle French impropre, from Latin improprius (“not proper”), from in- + proprius (“proper”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?p??p.?/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /?m?p??p.?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?p??.p?/
• Rhymes: -?p?(?)

Adjective

improper (comparative more improper, superlative most improper)

1. unsuitable to needs or circumstances; inappropriate; inapt
2. Not in keeping with conventional mores or good manners; indecent or immodest
3. Not according to facts; inaccurate or erroneous
4. Not consistent with established facts; incorrect
5. Not properly named; See, for example, improper fraction
6. (obsolete) Not specific or appropriate to individuals; general; common.
   • 1608, John Fletcher The Faithful Shepherdess

     Not to be adorned with any art but such improper ones as nature is said to bestow, as singing and poetry.

Synonyms

• unproper (obsolete or rare)

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

improper (third-person singular simple present impropers, present participle impropering, simple past and past participle impropered)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To appropriate; to limit.
   • 1565, John Jewel, letter to Thomas Harding

     He would in like manner improper and inclose the sunbeams to comfort the rich and not the poor.

2. (obsolete) To behave improperly

Anagrams

• impropre

English

Etymology

From Latin pr?ri?ns, present participle of pr?ri? (“itch”)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p????.i.?nt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?p???.i.?nt/
• Hyphenation: pru?ri?ent

Adjective

prurient (comparative more prurient, superlative most prurient)

1. Uneasy with desire; itching; especially, having a lascivious anxiety or propensity; lustful.
   • 1823, The London Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, Etc, page 781,

     We know that at that period certain indecencies in the dresses, even of those who were considered as the most refined and polished men of the age, were not only tolerated but ostentatiously displayed, and every sort of device that the most prurient mind could think of was had recourse to, to attract attention or excite a smile.

   • 1995, Brian Parkinson, Ideas and Realities of Emotion, page 124,

     For example, some of the more prudish senders may have averted their attention from the sexual pictures while other more prurient viewers may have intensified their gaze.

   • 2010, Stephen Sartarelli (translator), Love and the Erotic in Art, (2008, Stefano Zuffi, Amore ed erotismo), John Paul Getty Trust, US, page 7,

     It must be removed at once, lest it disturb the young and arouse in adults the most prurient thoughts.

2. Arousing or appealing to sexual desire.
   • 1825, The Literary Chronicle for the Year 1825, London, page 156,

     […] nor is it more prurient or lascivious than many productions to be found in a circulating library.

   • 2008, Marcel Danesi, Popular Culture: Introductory Perspectives, page 204,

     But in contemporary consumerist societies, when the kids are safely in bed, television programs allow viewers to indulge their more prurient interests.

3. Curious, especially inappropriately so.
   • 2005, Donald Gilbert-Santamaría, Writers on the Market: Consuming Literature in Early Seventeenth-century Spain, page 130,

     Much of my discussion in the previous two chapters has focused on the dichotomy in Alemán's novel between the author's stated interest in moral didacticism and the more prurient appeal of the novel's representations of material privation and violent spectacle.

Synonyms

• (uneasy with desire): lustful
• (sexually arousing or appealing): titillating

Derived terms

• prurient interest

Related terms

• prurience
• pruriently
• pruritus

Translations

Latin

Verb

pr?rient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of pr?ri?