Profane

• POS: Adjective, Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: pro=fane

CIDE DICTIONARY

Profane, a. [F., fr. L. profanus, properly, before the temple, i. e., without the temple, unholy; pro before + fanum temple. See 1st Fane.].

•  Not sacred or holy; not possessing peculiar sanctity; unconsecrated; hence, relating to matters other than sacred; secular; -- opposed to sacred, religious, or inspired; as, a profane place.  I. Disraeli.  [1913 Webster]

  "The profane wreath was suspended before the shrine."  [1913 Webster]
•  Unclean; impure; polluted; unholy.  [1913 Webster]

  "Nothing is profane that serveth to holy things."  [1913 Webster]
•  Treating sacred things with contempt, disrespect, irreverence, or undue familiarity; irreverent; impious.  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Secular; temporal; worldly; unsanctified; unhallowed; unholy; irreligious; irreverent; ungodly; wicked; godless; impious. See Impious.

Profane, v. t. [L. profanare: cf. F. profaner. See Profane, a.].

•  To violate, as anything sacred; to treat with abuse, irreverence, obloquy, or contempt; to desecrate; to pollute; as, to profane the name of God; to profane the Scriptures, or the ordinance of God.  [1913 Webster]

  "The priests in the temple profane the sabbath."  [1913 Webster]
•  To put to a wrong or unworthy use; to make a base employment of; to debase; to abuse; to defile.  [1913 Webster]

  "So idly to profane the precious time."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Profane, adj. & v.
--adj.
1 not belonging to what is sacred or biblical; secular.
2 irreverent, blasphemous.
3 (of a rite etc.) heathen.
4 not initiated into religious rites or any esoteric knowledge.
--v.tr.
1 treat (a sacred thing) with irreverence or disregard.
2 violate or pollute (what is entitled to respect).

Derivative

profanation n. profanely adv. profaneness n. profaner n.

Etymology

ME prophane f. OF prophane or med.L prophanus f. L profanus before (i.e. outside) the temple, not sacred (as PRO-(1), fanum temple)

THESAURUS

Profane

Fescennine, Philistine, Rabelaisian, abuse, abusive, apostate, atheistic, backsliding, bad, bawdy, befoul, blasphemous, blue, calumniatory, calumnious, carnal, carnal-minded, coarse, comminatory, commit sacrilege, common, contaminate, contemptuous, contumelious, convert, corrupt, cursing, damnatory, debase, defalcate, defile, defiled, degrade, denunciatory, desecrate, dirty, disbelieving, dishonor, disrespectful, divert, dysphemistic, earthly, earthy, embezzle, epithetic, ethnic, excommunicative, excommunicatory, execratory, fallen, fallen from grace, filthy, fleshly, foul, foul-mouthed, fulminatory, gentile, godless, heathen, idolatrous, immodest, impious, imprecatory, improper, impure, indecent, indecorous, indelicate, infidel, infidelic, iniquitous, irreligious, irreverent, lapsed, lay, low, maladminister, maledictory, material, materialistic, misapply, misappropriate, misemploy, mishandle, mismanage, misuse, mundane, nasty, naughty, nonsacred, obscene, off color, pagan, peculate, pervert, pilfer, pollute, profanatory, prostitute, raunchy, raw, recidivist, recidivistic, recreant, renegade, reprobate, ribald, risque, sacrilegious, scatologic, scurrile, scurrilous, secular, sinful, smutty, taboo, taint, temporal, terrestrial, the fleshly, the mundane, the profane, the secular, the temporal, the unholy, the worldly, tref, unbelieving, unblessed, unclean, uncouth, undutiful, ungodly, unhallowed, unholy, unmentionable, unprintable, unregenerate, unsacred, unsanctified, unspiritual, venomous, vile, violate, vitiate, vituperative, vulgar, wicked, worldly

ROGET THESAURUS

Profane

Misuse

VB misuse, misemploy, misapply, misappropriate, desecrate, abuse, profane, prostitute: waste, overtask, overtax, overwork: squander, cut blocks with a razor, employ a steam engine to crack a nut, catch at a straw.

Impiety

VB be impious, profane, desecrate, blaspheme, revile, scoff, swear, commit sacrilege, snuffle, turn up the whites of the eyes, idolize.

N impiety, sin, irreverence, profaneness, profanity, profanation, blasphemy, desecration, sacrilege, scoffing, hypocrisy, pietism, cant, pious fraud, lip devotion, lip service, lip reverence, misdevotion, formalism, austerity, sanctimony, sanctimoniousness, pharisaism, precisianism, sabbatism, sabbatarianism, odium theologicum, sacerdotalism, bigotry blue laws, hardening, backsliding, declension, perversion, reprobation, sinner, scoffer, blasphemer, sacrilegist, sabbath breaker, worldling, hypocrite, Tartufe, Mawworm, bigot, saint, Pharisee, sabbatarian, formalist, methodist, puritan, pietist, precisian, religionist, devotee, ranter, fanatic, juramentado, the wicked, the evil, the unjust, the reprobate, sons of men, sons of Belial, the wicked one, children of darkness, impious, irreligious, desecrating, profane, irreverent, sacrilegious, blasphemous, un-hallowed, un-sanctified, un-regenerate, hardened, perverted, reprobate, hypocritical, canting, pietistical, sanctimonious, unctuous, pharisaical, overrighteous, righteous over much, bigoted, fanatical, priest-ridden, under the mask of religion, under the cloak of religion, under the pretense of religion, under the form of religion, under the guise of religion, giovane santo diavolo vecchio.

Laity

N laity, flock, fold, congregation, assembly, brethren, people, society, temporality, secularization, layman, civilian, parishioner, catechumen, secularist, secular, lay, laical, civil, temporal, profane.