Standard Lemma guide

piacularity

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

The quality of being piacular, of requiring atonement.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

Examples

  • 1849, Thomas De Quincey "The Theban Sphinx", page 141, The Collected Writings of Thomas De Quincey, volume 6, edited by David Masson, published 1890, by A. & C. Black [I]t illustrates a profound but obscure idea of pagan ages, which is connected with the elementary glimpses of man into the abysses of his higher relations, and lurks mysteriously amongst what Milton so finely calls "the dark foundations" of our human nature. This notion, it is hard to express in modern phrase, for we have no idea exactly corresponding to it; but in Latin it was called piacularity.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Latin piaculariter (“by way of atonement; sinfully”), piacularius (“atoning, expiatory”) from piaculo (“to appease or propitiate with an offering”). See pius (“dutiful”).