pornocracy
/pɔɹˈnɑkɹəsi/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
The period of the papacy known as the saeculum obscūrum (Latin for “dark age”), and also as the “Rule of the Harlots”, which began with the installation of Pope Sergius III in 904 and lasted for sixty years until the death of Pope John XII in 964, during which time the popes were strongly influenced by the Theophylacti, a powerful and corrupt aristocratic family.
name
Alternative letter-case form of pornocracy.
Example Sentences
- "Under the pornocracy (government of harlots) in the first half of the 10th century, the Papacy was degraded and all Italy torn by factions."
- "Monsters of impurity, avaricious wretches, poisoners, have occupied the papal see. A learned bishop (Maret of the General Council) expresses himself with holy indignation in reference to the frightful enormities of the tenth century. This epoch deserves to be designated under the title of the Pornocracy; that is to say, the government of prostitutes, for Theodora, Marozia, and other ladies of rank at that time, placed on the pontifical throne their paramours and their sons, who were no better than themselves."
- "[Pierre-Joseph] Proudhon had a consistent—many have called it reactionary—preference for smaller and more personalized social units. His passionate defense of the traditional rural family (and attendant hatred of the “pornocracy” of Paris) was part of a relentless localism that tended to prefer Burgundy to France, Franche Comité to Burgundy, and the individual family and village to Franche Comité."
- "Even in the confident era of bourgeois patriarchy prior to 1848, actresses had ben, at best, disgraced women who might atone for their mistakes through self-sacrifice. In the three ensuing decades, fear of pornocracy had run high. Could views of theater women transcend fears of sexual indulgence and seduction so that actresses might become honored citizens? Would they ever take their places as members of the second sex along with bourgeois wives and mothers? Improbable before 1880, these changes were realized under the Third Republic."
- "The [Dead Sea] Scrolls' visions, like those of latter-day apocalyptists Jim Jones and David Koresh, of Islamic jihad and West Bank Kahanists, can become pornocracies of violence, acted out with a horrifying relish for blood."
- "No legitimate questions concerning the abuses by pornocracies are now permitted, for those rulers who prostitute their ethical and moral values for a handful of gold and a bunch of dilapidated dwellings are only fit to shovel shit from one ship to another."
Etymology
Probably borrowed from German Pornokratie, first found in the writings of Austrian-born Biblical scholar Alfred Edersheim (1825–1889), from Ancient Greek πόρνη (pórnē, “female prostitute”) + -κρᾰτῐ́ᾱ (-krătĭ́ā, “-cracy”, suffix indicating “government, rule”); analysable as porno- + -cracy.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /pɔɹˈnɑkɹəsi/
- British English: /pɔːˈnɒkɹəsɪ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
the Pornocracy (canonical)
pornocracies (plural)