Refine this word faster
Peccant
Definitions
- 1 Of a person, etc.: that commits or has committed an offence or a sin; blameworthy, culpable, offending, sinful, sinning. archaic
"But let us call to Synod all the Bleſt / Through Heav'ns wide bounds; from them I will not hide / My judgments, how with Mankind I proceed, / As how with peccant Angels late they ſaw; / And in thir ſtate, though firm, ſtood more confirmd."
- 2 Of an action or thing: causing offence or sin; offensive, sinful. archaic
"[O]ur ovvne Statutes […] preciſely prohibit the ſatyricall depraving, traducing, or derogation of the Common Prayer-Booke, and of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in any Enterludes, Playes or Rimes, (in vvhich kinde Playes had been formerly peccant) under ſevere penalties."
- 3 Especially of humours of the body: diseased, unhealthy; also, causing disease. also, archaic, figuratively, historical
"Thus haue I deſcribed and opened as by a kinde of diſſection, thoſe peccant humors (the principall of them) vvhich hath not onely giuen impediment to the proficence of Learning, but haue giuen alſo occaſion, to the traducement thereof: […]"
- 4 Offending a norm, a rule, etc.; defective, faulty, wrong. archaic, obsolete
"Nor is the Party cited bound to appear, if the Citation be evidently peccant in point of Form or Matter."
- 1 liable to sin wordnet
- 1 An offender; also, a sinner. archaic, obsolete
"Yet this conceitedneſſe and Itch of being taken for a Counſellour, maketh more Reprovers, than Peccants in the vvorld."
Etymology
The adjective is borrowed from Middle French peccant (“unhealthy”) (modern French peccant), and from its etymon Late Latin peccantis, the genitive singular of peccāns (“offending; sinning, transgressing”, adjective), from Latin peccāns (“wrongdoer”), a noun use of the active present participle of peccō (“to offend; to sin, transgress”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“to fall; to stumble; to step; to walk”). As regards adjective sense 3 (“diseased, unhealthy”) as used in peccant humours, compare Middle French l'umeur peccante, humeurs peccantes, Old French humeurs pechantes, and Late Latin humores peccantes. The noun is derived from the adjective.
The adjective is borrowed from Middle French peccant (“unhealthy”) (modern French peccant), and from its etymon Late Latin peccantis, the genitive singular of peccāns (“offending; sinning, transgressing”, adjective), from Latin peccāns (“wrongdoer”), a noun use of the active present participle of peccō (“to offend; to sin, transgress”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“to fall; to stumble; to step; to walk”). As regards adjective sense 3 (“diseased, unhealthy”) as used in peccant humours, compare Middle French l'umeur peccante, humeurs peccantes, Old French humeurs pechantes, and Late Latin humores peccantes. The noun is derived from the adjective.
See also for "peccant"
Next best steps
Mini challenge
Unscramble this word: peccant