peccant
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peccant
- /ˈpɛk(ə)nt/ US, UK
Where it comes from
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.
adjective more peccant · most peccant
- Of a person, etc.: that commits or has committed an offence or a sin; blameworthy, culpable, offending, sinful, sinning. 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.
- Of an action or thing: causing offence or sin; offensive, sinful. [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.
- Especially of humours of the body: diseased, unhealthy; also, causing disease. 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: […]
- Offending a norm, a rule, etc.; defective, faulty, wrong. Nor is the Party cited bound to appear, if the Citation be evidently peccant in point of Form or Matter.
noun peccants
- An offender; also, a sinner. Yet this conceitedneſſe and Itch of being taken for a Counſellour, maketh more Reprovers, than Peccants in the vvorld.
Talk about this word "peccant." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/peccant. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. peccant. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/peccant "peccant." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/peccant.Cite this
@misc{peccant_2026,
title = {peccant},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/peccant},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
