Page 399 - Word Power Made Easy: The Complete Handbook for Building a Superior Vocabulary

2. lascivious (lƏ-SIV′-ee-Əs)—from lascivia, wantonness.

3. lubricious (l -BRISH′-Əs)—from lubricus, slippery, the same root found in lubricate. The
noun is lubricity (l -BRIS′-Ə-tee).

4. licentious (lī-SEN′-shƏs)—from licere, to be permitted, the root from which we get
license, etymologically, “permission,” and illicit, etymologically, “not permitted.”

5. lewd—the previous four words derive from Latin, but this one is from Anglo-Saxon
lewed, vile.

6. lustful—from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning pleasure, desire. Noun: lust.

Libidinous, lascivious, lubricious, licentious, lewd, lecherous, lustful are seven adjectives that
indicate sexual desire and/or activity. The implication of all seven words is more or less
derogatory.
Each adjective becomes a noun with the addition of the noun su x -ness; lubricity and
lust are alternate noun forms of two of the adjectives.

6. of sex and the itch

Prurient (PR ′-ee-Ənt), from Latin prurio, to itch, to long for, describes someone who is
lled with great sexual curiosity, desire, longing, etc. Can you form the noun?

__________________.
Pruritis (pr r-Ī′-tis), from the same root, is a medical condition in which the skin is very
itchy, but without a rash or eruptions. (Scratch enough, of course, as you will be irresistibly
tempted to do, and something like a rash will soon appear.) The adjective is pruritic (pr r-
IT′-ik).

7. under and over

Hypochondria (hī-pƏ-KON′-dree-Ə) is built on two Greek roots: hypos, under, and chondros,
the cartilage of the breastbone. This may sound farfetched until you realize that under the
breastbone is the abdomen; the ancient Greeks believed that morbid anxiety about one’s
health arose in the abdomen—and no one is more morbidly, unceasingly, and unhappily

anxious about health than the hypochondriac.
Hypochondriac is also an adjective—an alternate and more commonly used adjective form
is hypochondriacal (hī′-pƏ-kƏn-DRĪ′-Ə-kƏl).
Hypos, under, is a useful root to know. The hypodermic needle penetrates under the skin; a

hypothyroid person has an underworking thyroid gland; hypotension is abnormally low blood
pressure.
On the other hand, hyper is the Greek root meaning over. The hypercritical person is
excessively fault- nding; hyperthyroidism is an overworking of the thyroid gland;
hypertension is high blood pressure; and you can easily gure out the meanings of
hyperacidity, hyperactive, hypersensitive, etc.