procacity

English

Etymology

From Middle French procacité, from Latin procācitās (whence -acity), from Latin procāx (“bold, impudent”), from procō (“ask, demand”), from procus (“suitor”).

Noun

procacity (usually uncountable, plural procacities)

  1. (dated) The state of being procacious; forwardness, pertness, or petulance, or an instance thereof.
    • 1624, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy: What it Is, with All the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Seuerall Cures of it : in Three Partitions, with Their Severall Sections, Members & Subsections‎[1], 2nd edition, Henry Cripps, published 1638, page 541:
      In vain are all your flatteries, In vain are all your knaveries, Delights, deceipts, procacities, Sighs, kisses, and conspiracies, And what e're is done by art, To bewitch a lovers heart.

References

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