prurience
/prurience/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Noun: 1. A morbid or excessive interest in sexual matters; lewdness: Prurience refers to an unhealthy, obsessive, or inappropriate preoccupation with sexual thoughts, desires, or details. It implies a lack of healthy restraint and a focus on the salacious aspects of sexuality. 2. (Less common) An excessive or unhealthy curiosity or desire for something: In a broader, more figurative sense, it can describe an intense, often unwholesome, eagerness or craving for any subject, not exclusively sexual.
Usage
- Prurience is a formal and critical term. It is used to describe a state of mind or a characteristic of interest, often in contexts discussing morality, psychology, media, or behavior.
- It is an uncountable noun. You do not say "a prurience" or "pruriences."
- Common collocations include:
Examples
- The journalist accused the tabloid newspaper of exploiting the tragedy to cater to prurience rather than to inform.
- His questions about their private life betrayed a disturbing prurience.
- The novel was banned not for its political message but for the alleged prurience of its descriptions.
- (Figurative) The documentary was criticized for its prurience in detailing the celebrity's financial ruin.
Advanced Usage
- "Prurience masquerading as concern": A phrase used to criticize when someone's apparent interest in a serious matter is actually driven by a voyeuristic or unhealthy curiosity.
- The intense media coverage of the family's grief was nothing more than prurience masquerading as public concern.
Variants and Related Words
- Prurient (adjective): Having or encouraging an excessive interest in sexual matters.
- The court ruled the material was obscene and appealed to prurient interests.
- Pruriency (noun): A less common synonym for prurience, identical in meaning.
Synonyms
- Lasciviousness: Suggesting overt and overtly expressed sexual desire.
- Lewdness: Crude and offensive in a sexual way.
- Salaciousness: Emphasizing a lustful or lecherous interest in sexual details.
- Voyeurism: Deriving pleasure from observing intimate or private acts (literal or figurative).
Related Idioms and Phrases
- To pander to prurience: To deliberately provide material designed to satisfy unhealthy sexual curiosity.
- The filmmaker was accused of pandering to the audience's prurience with gratuitous scenes.
- A prurient interest: A common phrase used in legal and critical contexts to describe an unhealthy focus on sexual content.
- The book was deemed to have no literary value and to appeal solely to a prurient interest.
Noun
- feeling morbid sexual desire or a propensity to lewdness