incest
(ˈɪnsɛst)
[ad. L. incestus (u stem) or incestum (neuter of incestus adj. impure, unchaste), from in- (in-3) + castus chaste, pure. Cf. OF. inceste (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.). In sense 2, ad. L. incestus, F. inceste, an incestuous person.]
1. a. The crime of sexual intercourse or cohabitation between persons related within the degrees within which marriage is prohibited; sexual commerce of near kindred.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 204 Incest..is bitwhwe sibbe, vleshliche oðer gostliche. a 1300 Cursor M. 27942 Incest, þat es for to lij bi þat þi sibman has line bi, or if þou has don þat sin wit ani of þin aun kin. c 1440 Jacob's Well (E.E.T.S.) 162 Neyther may be weddyd to oþeres kyn, in-to þe fyfte degre, ne medle wyth hem; for ȝif þei don, it is incest. 1548 Udall Erasm. Par. Luke iii. (R.), Thys holy man coulde not abide such incest and vnnaturalnesse of mariage in a king's house. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. i. 139 Is't not a kinde of Incest, to take life From thine owne sisters shame? 1840 Macaulay Ess., Ranke (1851) II. 137 Its annals are black with treason, murder, and incest. 1868 Farrar Seekers iii. iii. (1875) 299 Hideous charges of cannibalism and incest. |
b. spiritual incest (in R. C. Ch.): (a) Marriage or sexual connexion between persons related by spiritual affinity, or with a person under a vow of chastity, etc. (b) The holding by the same person of two benefices, one of which depends on the collation of the other.
| a 1225 [see 1]. 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 361/1 Mayster Martine Luther hymself..toke out of religion a spouse of Christ..liueth with her openly..in shamefull incest and abhominable bycherye. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., Spiritual incest is understood of a..beneficiary who..holds two benefices, the one whereof depends on the collation of the other. Such a spiritual incest renders both..benefices void. |
† 2. A person guilty of incest. Obs. rare.
| 1484 Caxton Fables of æsop vi. iv, Thow arte an inceste & lechour, For thow knowest naturelly both thy moder and thy doughter. |
3. attrib. and Comb.
| 1633 Ford 'Tis Pity v. iv, When my young incest-monger comes. 1819 Shelley Let. 16 Nov. (1964) II. 531 The incest scene of Amon & Tamar is tremendous. 1921 D. H. Lawrence Psychoanal. & Unconscious i. 20 At the root of almost every neurosis lies some incest-craving. Ibid. ii. 31 And this brings us finally to incest, even incest-worship. 1933 Ld. Raglan Jocasta's Crime i. 6 Having eliminated reason, instinct, and religion as bases of the incest taboo, what have we left? The answer is magic. Ibid. ii. 15 There are no stronger upholders of the incest taboo than those very Australian tribes who believe that the child has no physical connexion with the father. 1946 Koestler Thieves in Night 162 The intimacy of life in the smaller Communes acts as a gradually materialising incest-barrier. 1949 ― Insight & Outlook xxiii. 323 Examples of such archetypes or primordial experiences are..the incest-motif. 1949 M. Mead Male & Female ix. 199 Usually the primary incest-taboos are extended in various ways. 1963 A. Heron Towards Quaker View of Sex 56 Incest thoughts appear in human dreams. Ibid. 59 The sexual nature of this relationship is reinforced and with it feelings of incest-guilt, especially in the child. This situation may cause the boy or girl later to shirk contact with the opposite sex for fear of violating the incest barrier. |