debauch
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debauch
- /dɪˈbɔːt͡ʃ/
Rhymes with -ɔːtʃ
Where it comes from
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁
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Proto-Indo-European *trísinflu.
Proto-Indo-European *d(w)is-
Proto-Italic *dis-
Latin dis-
Old French des-
Old French bauche
Proto-Italic *-āzi
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Latin -ereinflu.
Latin -āre
Old French -ier
Old French desbauchier
Middle French desbaucherbor.
English debauch
1590s, from Middle French desbaucher (“entice from work or duty”), from Old French desbauchier (“to lead astray”), from des- + bauch (“beam”), from Frankish *balkō, from Proto-Germanic *balkô, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- (“beam, plank”); latter origin of balk.
Evolution of sense unclear; may be literally “to shave/trim wood to make a beam” or may be “to leave/lure someone from a workshop”, Frankish *balkō perhaps also meaning “workshop”.
Possible corruption by way of Anglicised French term bord (“edge, curb”): curb crawling as a synonym for prostitution. Parallels in modern German: Bordsteinschwalbe (“prostitute”, literally “Curb-stone-swallow”). English words bawd, bawdiness may be similarly connected.
noun debauches · debosh
- An individual act of debauchery. [E]v'ry twentieth pace / Conducts the unguarded noſe to ſuch a whiff / Of ſtale debauch forth-iſſuing from the ſtyes / That law has licenſed, as makes temp'rance reel.
- An orgy. The flowers, oppressive to the eyes, blazed with not a petal stirring, in a debauch of sun.
verb debauches · debauching · debauched · debosh
- To morally corrupt (someone); to seduce. But the Devil had met with too much Success in his first Attempts, not to go on with his general Resolution of debauching the Minds of Men, and bringing them off from God.
- To debase (something); to lower the value of (something). Those who with nine months toil had spoil’d a Play, In hopes of Eating at a full Third day, Justly despairing longer to sustain A craving Stomach from an empty Brain, Have left Stage-Practice, chang’d their old Vocations, Atoning for bad Plays, with worse Translations, And like old Sternhold with la
- To indulge in revelry.
