peccant
/ˈpɛk(ə)nt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "[T]hat a peccant Creature ſhould diſapprove, and repent of every Violation of, and Declination from the Rules of juſt and honeſt, this, right Reaſon diſcourſing upon the Stock of its ovvn Principles, could not but infer."
- "Syndic Gutzmar and the peccant Officials being summoned out to Strehlen, it had been asked of them, "Do you know this Letter?" Upon which they fell on their knees, "Ach Ihro Majestät [Oh Your Majesty]!" unable to deny their handwriting; […]"
- "[He] was bereaving his houses of the matronly government, deprived of which they were all of them likely soon to be at sixes and sevens with disorderly lacqueys, peccant maids, and cooks in hysterics."
- "[T]he fact that the peccant doctor [Sir James Clark, 1st Baronet] continued in the Queen's service made the Hastings family irreconcilable and produced an unpleasant impression of unrepentant error upon the public mind."
- "[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."
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpɛk(ə)nt/
- British English: /ˈpɛk(ə)nt/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
peccantly
peccantness