turpitude

Borrowed from Middle French turpitude, from Latin turpitūdō (“baseness, infamy”), from turpis (“foul, base”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtɜː(ɹ)pɪtjuːd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɜɹpətuːd/

• Audio (US):

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• Hyphenation: tur‧pi‧tude

turpitude (countable and uncountable, plural turpitudes)

1. Inherent baseness, depravity or wickedness; corruptness and evilness.
   • 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde:

     As for the moral turpitude that man unveiled to me, even with tears of penitence, I cannot, even in memory, dwell on it without a start of horror.

2. An act evident of such depravity.

Borrowed from Latin turpitūdō.

• IPA^(key): /tyʁ.pi.tyd/

turpitude f (plural turpitudes)

1. turpitude (depravity, wickedness)
2. turpitude (depraved or wicked act)

• “turpitude”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.