obscenityn.

1589 T. Nashe Anat. Absurditie sig. Ciii I woulde not haue any man imagine, that in praysing of Poetry, I endeuour to approoue Virgils vnchast Priapus, or Ouids obscenitie.

1608 A. Willet Hexapla in Exodum 831 In many of their..idoll seruices..they vsed much obscenitie.

1644 J. Milton Doctr. Divorce (ed. 2) 42 Worse..then the worst obscenities of heathen superstition.

1711 A. Pope Ess. Crit. 31 No Pardon vile Obscenity should find, Tho' Wit and Art conspire to move your Mind.

1768 H. Brooke Fool of Quality III. xvi. 243 Whenever he hear'd any Profaneness or Obscenity in the Streets, he would stop to reprove and expostulate with the Offender.

1829 W. Scott Lett. Demonol. vii. 208 The..grossest obscenities ever impressed on paper.

1893 Church Times 6 Oct. 995/3 Pictures of foul obscenity not to be surpassed in Pompeii.

1938 J. Agate Diary 10 Sept. in Ego 4 (1940) 26 The Independent Theatre of London has produced the play [sc. Ghosts], and..the entire English Press has found it immoral and of a revolting obscenity.

1971 J. Trevelyan in Mind & Mental Health Winter 6/1 My own inclination is to apply the word ‘pornography’ to written or visual material concerned solely with sex, and the word ‘obscenity’ as a more general term covering pornography and also other things, especially violence. This view was held by D. H. Lawrence who suggested that obscenity was a matter of personal opinion, whereas pornography was something specific; he defined it as making sex dirty for money.

1988 R. Christiansen Romantic Affinities iii. 114 The carousing obscenities of the prostitutes and actresses offended her sensibilites.

2001 Times 24 July (Sports Daily) i. 4/1 I remember the silent, jaw-dropping awe, the uttering of whispered obscenities in a mantric, almost prayerful fashion.

a1618 J. Sylvester Tobacco Battered 712 Consuming more, in their Obscure Obscænity, On Smoak and Smock, with their appendent Vanity, Then their brave Elders did.

1624 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy (ed. 2) ii. iii. iii. 266 Dishes..nastely dressed by slouenly cookes, that after their obscenities, neuer wash their hands.

1689 N. Lee Princess of Cleve ii. iii. 25 T'other night I was in company with two or three well-bred Fops, that found fault with my Obscenity, and protested.

1752 H. Fielding Amelia I. i. vi. 50 Smoaking Tobacco, drinking Punch, talking Obscenity, and swearing and cursing with all the Impudence and Impiety of the lowest and most abandoned Trull of a Soldier.

1771 T. Smollett Humphry Clinker I. 174 It soured on the stomach of Mrs. Tabby, who had not yet digested the affront of his naked skin..he had insulted her with his obscenity.

1807 C. Buchanan in Academy (1876) 21 Oct. 410/1 One of the victims..was a well-made young man... He danced for a while before the idol [sc. Juggernaut],..then rushing suddenly to the wheels he shed his blood under the tower of obscenity.

1940 Times 19 Apr. 7/2 What one American newspaper stigmatizes as the ‘obscenity’ of the attack upon Norway.

1970 Times 21 Mar. 3/1 The obscenity of racial hatred has been vigorously propagated over the last few years.

1986 Daily Express 18 Aug. 9/1 He spoke of the ‘murderous obscenities’ of the Provisionals.