libertinism

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a way of life marked by self-indulgence, sexual freedom, and rejection of conventional moral restraints

   The novel contrasts the court's libertinism with the austerity of village life.

2. 2
   noun

   historical: rejection of established religious or moral authority by a freethinker

   Authorities treated his theological libertinism as a threat to public order.

Formed from libertine + -ism. Libertine came from Latin libertinus, 'freed person,' and shifted in French and English from freethinker to a person unconstrained by conventional morality.

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