We Solute the Dissolute, the Lewd, and the Licentious

So after last week we know all about roués, rakes, and cads. (Some day we’ll get to the Sonny and Cher list: gypsies, tramps, and thieves.) Today we continue the subject with dissolute, licentious, and lewd.

Dissolute is an adjective that means given to immoral or improper conduct. My dictionary has licentious and dissipated as synonyms. The word dissolute comes directly from the Latin word dissolutus, which means loose or disconnected. Dissolutus is the past participle of the Latin word dissolvere, which means loosen up and from which we get our word dissolve. A person who is dissolute is someone deteriorating due to their conduct, and the phrase “coming apart at the seams” comes to mind. 

The word has been around since the late 1300s in English, but the situation it describes is much older.

As with all words that seem to have a prefix, I wondered if there is a word solute. There certainly is. A substance that is dissolved in a solution is a solute. Sounds like the dictionary is using the word to describe the word, doesn’t it? I checked another dictionary: the World English Dictionary tries harder and comes up with “the component of a solution that changes its state in forming the solution or the component that is not present in excess. So apparently the sugar and non-dairy powder that I add to my wife’s coffee is the solute in the coffee I give her. But the word has only been used in English since 1890, so it is a relatively new word.

Do not confuse solute (which can be pronounced with a short or long "o") with salute, which is a way of greeting or showing honor or respect to someone. The military do this most often with the right hand raised in some way or another (depending on the country). Salute has been around in English since the 1300s. It came from the Latin word salutare and originally did not have the letter t, being spelled salue. By the time the verb added a noun sense in about 1400 the “t” had been added.

Back to the gutter. Licentious is the other carryover from last week. Another adjective, it means sexually or morally unrestrained, although it can also mean lawless. It came to English in the 1530s from Medieval Latin, from the word licentiosus. Licentiosus means full of license or unrestrained, and is a form of the word licentia from which we get the word license.

The dictionary says synonyms for licentious are lascivious, libertine, and lewd. While we’ve covered the first two, lewd (often used as the first word in the phrase “lewd and lascivious”) we get to now.

Lewd is the oldest English word of today's post; my dictionary says it has been used in English at least since before 900. In Old English the word was spelled læwede and meant nonclerical. As such it developed the additional meaning of uneducated by the early 1200s, and by 1400 further descended in meaning to “coarse, vile, and lustful.” Today it has the meaning of inclined to lust or lechery, obscene or indecent. 

Nude is considered lewd except in San Francisco, but newd is not lude. Lude is a short slang word for quaalude, and has been used since 1973.

So dissolute has a sense of dissolving behavior, licentious is beyond the bounds of proper behavior, and lewd is lustful behavior. Depending on where you live.