Legal Definition and Related Resources of Obscene

A publication, the tendency of which is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences, and into whose hands it is likely to fall. Obscene publications or libels are punishable with fine or imprisonment, being misdemeanour at common law

adjective

• bawdy
• broad
• debauched
• foul
• immodest
• immoral
• impure
• indecent
• indelicate
• inquinatus
• lascivious
• lecherous
• lewd
• libidinous
• licentious
• lubricous
• lurid
• lustful
• obscenus
• offensive
• offensive to decency
• offensive to modesty
• patently offensive
• pornographic
• profane
• profligate
• ribald
• risque
• salacious
• scabrous
• sensual
• sexy
• shameful
• shameless
• spicy
• tending to excite lustful desires
• turpis
• unchaste
• unwholesome
• vile
• vulgar
• wanton

Browse or run a search for Obscene in the American Encyclopedia of Law, the Asian Encyclopedia of Law, the European Encyclopedia of Law, the UK Encyclopedia of Law or the Latin American and Spanish Encyclopedia of Law.

Obscene in Historical Law

You might be interested in the historical meaning of this term. Browse or search for Obscene in Historical Law in the Encyclopedia of Law.

For more information about Historical Law definitions, see Historical Definitions in the Encyclopedia of Law. For more information about Historical Law Books and Legal Documents, see Legal Encyclopedia of Historical Books and Documents and Legal Encyclopedia of Books and Documents of the 20th Century.

Search for legal acronyms and/or abbreviations containing Obscene in the Legal Abbreviations and Acronyms Dictionary.

You might be also interested in these legal terms:

Grammar

This term is an adjetive.

Etimology of Obscene

(You may find obscene at the world legal encyclopedia and the etimology of more terms).

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 “in front of” (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.