Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Guilty of a moral offense; sinning: Describes a person or entity that has committed a sin or moral transgression.
   • Causing disease; unhealthy: In medical or archaic usage, describes something that is harmful or pathogenic.

Examples of Usage

• Adjective (Moral sense):
  • The priest offered guidance to the peccant soul seeking absolution.
  • He acknowledged his peccant behavior and vowed to make amends.
• Adjective (Medical/Archaic sense):
  • The physician sought to identify the peccant humor causing the illness. (This usage is now rare.)

Advanced Usage

• "Peccant matter": An archaic medical term for a substance or agent that causes disease or corruption in the body.
  • The old medical text described how to purge peccant matter from the blood.

Variants and Related Words

• Peccability (n): The state or quality of being liable to sin.
  • The doctrine emphasized human peccability.
• Peccable (adj): Capable of sinning.
  • He is but a peccable human, prone to error.
• Peccant is related to but distinct from peccadillo (n), which is a minor sin or fault.

Synonyms

• Sinful: Characterized by or full of sin.
• Culpable: Deserving blame; guilty.
• Pathogenic (for the medical sense): Capable of causing disease.

Antonyms

• Virtuous: Having or showing high moral standards.
• Innocent: Not guilty of a crime or offense.
• Salubrious (for the medical sense): Health-giving; healthy.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• While not a common idiom itself, the word appears in formal or theological contexts discussing morality. A related concept is "the peccant part", an old-fashioned phrase for the specific diseased or offending part of the body or, metaphorically, the source of a moral fault.

Adjective

1. liable to sin
   • a frail and peccable mortal- Sir Walter Scott