obscene

• adj.わいせつな、みだらな、忌まわしい。

ラテン語のobscenus「攻撃的な」、obscena「舞台の後ろの」、ob-「舞台の上で」、-scaen「舞台」、PIE*skei「離れた」、語源は小屋、セグメント、プロセニアムと同じ。舞台の上ではなく、舞台の裏側で音を立てて演じられた。語源は、猥雑な、意地悪なという意味の言葉から派生した。

obscene (adj.)

1590s, "offensive to the senses, or to taste and refinement," from Middle French obscène (16c.), from Latin obscenus "offensive," especially to modesty, originally "boding ill, inauspicious," of unknown origin; perhaps from ob "onto" (see ob-) + caenum "filth." Meaning "offensive to modesty or decency" is attested from 1590s. Legally, in U.S., it hinged on "whether to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to a prurient interest." [Justice William Brennan, "Roth v. United States," June 24, 1957]; refined in 1973 by "Miller v. California":

The basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether 'the average person, applying contemporary community standards' would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Related: Obscenely.

1. His salary was obscene for three 40-minute shows a week.

彼は週に3回の番組しかなく、毎回40分しかないが、彼の給料は実に高い。

2.It was obscene to spend millions producing unwanted food.

数百万を費やして不要な食品を生産するのは、本当に腹立たしい。

3. Obscene and threatening phone calls are against the law.

わいせつ電話も脅迫電話も違法です。

4.The law is the final arbiter of what is considered obscene .

わいせつとは何か最終的に法律によって決定される。

5.His writings were branded as obscene and a blasphemy against God.

彼の著作は猥褻な作品と定められ、神への冒涜である。