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Pervert vs Prurient - What's the difference?

pervert | prurient |

As a noun pervert

is (dated) one who has been perverted; one who has turned to error; one who has turned to a twisted sense of values or morals.

As a verb pervert

is to turn another way; to divert.

As an adjective prurient is

uneasy with desire; itching; especially, having a lascivious anxiety or propensity; lustful.

pervert

Noun

(en noun)
  • (dated) One who has been perverted; one who has turned to error; one who has turned to a twisted sense of values or morals.
  • A person whose sexual habits are not considered acceptable.
  • Those perverts were trying to spy on us while we changed clothes!

    Usage notes

    * In contemporary usage, pervert is usually understood to refer to a sexually perverted person. Traditionally the word was mainly associated with persons of false religious beliefs.

    Synonyms

    * (sexually perverted person) deviant, perv (slang)

    Antonyms

    * convert (religious)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To turn another way; to divert.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Let's follow him, and pervert the present wrath.
  • To turn from truth, rectitude, or propriety; to divert from a right use, end, or way; to lead astray; to corrupt.
  • * Milton
  • He, in the serpent, had perverted Eve.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2004 , date=April 15 , author= , title=Morning swoop in hunt for Jodi's killer , work=The Scotsman citation , page= , passage=A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said: "We can confirm that a 15-year-old boy has been arrested and charged in connection with the murder of Jodi Jones. A 45-year-old has also been arrested in connection with allegations of attempting to pervert the course of justice. A report on this has been sent to the procurator fiscal." }}
  • To misapply; to misinterpret designedly.
  • pervert one's words
  • To become perverted; to take the wrong course.
  • (Testament of Love)

    Synonyms

    * (turn another way) divert, steer, veer * corrupt, lead astray * misapply, misuse * (take the wrong course)

    prurient

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Uneasy with desire; itching; especially, having a lascivious anxiety or propensity; lustful.
  • * 1823 , The London Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, Etc , page 781,
  • We know that at that period certain indecencies in the dresses, even of those who were considered as the most refined and polished men of the age, were not only tolerated but ostentatiously displayed, and every sort of device that the most prurient mind could think of was had recourse to, to attract attention or excite a smile.
  • * 1995 , Brian Parkinson, Ideas and Realities of Emotion , page 124,
  • For example, some of the more prudish senders may have averted their attention from the sexual pictures while other more prurient viewers may have intensified their gaze.
  • * 2010 , Stephen Sartarelli (translator), Love and the Erotic in Art'', (2008, Stefano Zuffi, ''Amore ed erotismo ), John Paul Getty Trust, US, page 7,
  • It must be removed at once, lest it disturb the young and arouse in adults the most prurient thoughts.
  • Arousing or appealing to sexual desire.
  • * 1825 , The Literary Chronicle for the Year 1825 , London, page 156,
  • nor is it more prurient or lascivious than many productions to be found in a circulating library.
  • * 2005 , Donald Gilbert-Santamaría, Writers on the Market: Consuming Literature in Early Seventeenth-century Spain , page 130,
  • Much of my discussion in the previous two chapters has focused on the dichotomy in Alemán's novel between the author's stated interest in moral didacticism and the more prurient appeal of the novel's representations of material privation and violent spectacle.
  • * 2008 , Marcel Danesi, Popular Culture: Introductory Perspectives , page 204,
  • But in contemporary consumerist societies, when the kids are safely in bed, television programs allow viewers to indulge their more prurient interests.
  • Curious, especially inappropriately so.
  • Synonyms

    * (uneasy with desire) lustful * (sexually arousing or appealing) titillating

    Derived terms

    * prurient interest