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.
双语例句
1. His salary was obscene for three 40-minute shows a week.
他一周只有3次节目，每次40分钟，但他的薪水实在高得离谱。
来自柯林斯例句
2. It was obscene to spend millions producing unwanted food.
耗资数百万去生产一些不需要的食品，真是令人发指。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Obscene and threatening phone calls are against the law.
猥亵和恐吓电话都是违法的。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The law is the final arbiter of what is considered obscene.
何谓猥亵最终由法律裁决。
来自《权威词典》
5. His writings were branded as obscene and a blasphemy against God.
