incest

CEFRC2

/ˈɪn.sɛst/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
noun
Sexual activity between close family members.
02
noun
Extra detail
Romantic relationships between close relatives, also widely taboo.

Examples

Imagine, for the sake of argument, a tribal group in which mother-son incest was countenanced.
Incest is a taboo found in almost all cultures.

At a glance

Sits at C2 on the CEFR scale

Deep Dive

Extra meanings

To engage in incestuous sexual activities.
Sexual relations between close relatives, especially immediate family members and sometimes first cousins, usually considered taboo.

In context

Genetic problems caused by incest are thought to have plagued many royal families in the Middle Ages.
He was only Craster's whelp, an abomination born of incest, not the son of the King-beyond-the-Wall.
For a structuralist like Edmund Leach, the structure is the meaning. Genesis, for example, is about incest taboos; all the rest is noise and mystification.

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The word in print, with each source given in full.

For a structuralist like Edmund Leach, the structure is the meaning. Genesis, for example, is about incest taboos; all the rest is noise and mystification.
1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light:Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, page 12
He was only Craster's whelp, an abomination born of incest, not the son of the King-beyond-the-Wall.
2005, George R. R. Martin, A Feast for Crows: A Song of Ice and Fire, page 225
I do not want anyone to feel that my lesbianism is a result of being incested.
1994, Kathryn Carter, Interpretive Approaches to Interpersonal Communication
Her erotic transference ultimately devolved into a revelation that she had been consistently incested by her brother
2009, Antonino Ferro, The Analytic Field: A Clinical Concept, page 206
[…] the most powerful of that bunch of immortal giants called Titans was Cronus, who “incested” with sister Rhea, who then birthed the Olympians (Zeus and his bunch) […]
2011, Marvin Mengeling, Crows, Pete Rose, UFOs: And Other Pretty Pieces, page 2

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Learned borrowing from Latin incestus. Displaced Old English mǣġhǣmed (literally “relative-sex”). Doublet of inchaste.