different between promiscuity vs libertinism

English

Etymology

From French promiscuité

Noun

promiscuity (plural promiscuities)

1. The state or quality of being promiscuous.
2. Indiscriminateness in the choice of sexual partners.
   • 1963 Albert Ellis, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Manhunting-p.129

     Experimental variety or what Rey Anthony has called selective promiscuity - is the cornerstone of sane sexual choice.

   • 1975 March 17, Marian Christy, Suzy Chaffee, A Liberated Beauty, The Lebanon Daily News

     I'm not advocating sexual promiscuity but I think it's possible for a woman to have many kinds of sexual relationships with many men and that shouldn't affect the status of the marriage

   • 1998 May 14, James Dobson, Self-worth based on beauty can wither as women age, The Woodfield County Journal

     As she becomes more conscious of her flirtatious power, she is sometimes urged toward promiscuity.

3. (dated, literary) State of being mixed, composed of diverse elements, unsystematic; heterogeneity.
   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 34

     While I dressed—for Stroeve wished me to go at once with him to the hospital—he told me that he had arranged for his wife to have a private room, so that she might at least be spared the sordid promiscuity of a ward.

Translations

English

Etymology

libertine +? -ism

Noun

libertinism (countable and uncountable, plural libertinisms)

1. A lifestyle or pattern of behavior characterized by self-indulgence and lack of restraint, especially one involving sexual promiscuity and rejection of religious or other moral authority.
   • 1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., ch. 13,

     The lord made a boast of his libertinism, and frequently avowed that he held all women to be fair game.

   • 1855, Washington Irving, "The Grand Prior of Minorca: A Veritable Ghost Story," in Chronicles of Wolfert's Roost and Other Papers,

     They led a life of luxury and libertinism, and were to be found in the most voluptuous courts of Europe.

   • 1990, David Gross and Sophfronia Scott, "Proceeding With Caution," Time, 16 Jul.,

     Only on college campuses do remnants of libertinism linger. That worries public-health officials, who are witnessing an explosion of sexually transmitted diseases.

   • 1993, Peter N. Miller, "‘Freethinking’ and ‘Freedom of Thought’ in Eighteenth-Century Britain," The Historical Journal, vol. 36, no. 3, p. 601:

     To facilitate their counter-attack, the targets of this critique sought to reduce the plurality of libertinisms to a simple libertine personality.

Related terms

• libertinage

Translations

References

• "libertinism" at OneLook® Dictionary Search.

Romanian

Etymology

libertin +? -ism

Noun

libertinism n (uncountable)

1. libertinism

Declension