FromLatincaelibātus(“celibacy, a single life”), fromcaelebs(“unmarried”).
celibacy (countable anduncountable,pluralcelibacies)
- Abstaining frommarriage; the state of being unmarried.
1920,American Lutheran Survey[1], volumes13-14, page16:They came to believe that men, who would live a godly life, must view marriage as a sin and choose a life ofcelibacy.
1970,The Futurist[2], page42:I could document this defense ofcelibacy. Unmarried women show up very well in all the tests of mental health.
- (by extension) Abstinence fromsexual relations.
abstaining from sexual relations
Translations to be checked
- “celibacy”, inWebster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.:G. & C. Merriam,1913,→OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney,Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “celibacy”, inThe Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.:The Century Co.,→OCLC.
