pornocracy - Wiktionary

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pornocracy

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See also: Pornocracy

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

An illustration of Pope Sergius III (c. 860 − 911) from Bartolomeo Platina’s Le vite de’ pontefici (The Lives of the Popes, 1663).[1] The sixty-year period beginning with Sergius III’s reign in 904 is known as the pornocracy. Sergius III reputedly ordered his two immediate predecessors, Leo V and Christopher, to be murdered, and was the only pope to have allegedly fathered an illegitimate son who himself later became Pope (John XI).

Probably borrowed from German Pornokratie ‎("pornocracy"‎), first found in the writings of Austrian-born Biblical scholar Alfred Edersheim (1825–1889), from Ancient Greek πόρνη ‎(pórnē, "female prostitute"‎) + -κρᾰτῐ́ᾱ ‎(-kratíā, "-cracy, suffix indicating ‘government, rule’"‎);[2] analysable as porno- +‎ -cracy.

Pronunciation[edit]

Proper noun[edit]

pornocracy

  1. (Roman Catholicism, historical, sometimes capitalized) The period of the papacy known as the saeculum obscurum (Latin for "dark age"), and also as the "Rule of the Harlots", which began with the installation of Pope Sergius III in 904 and lasted for sixty years until the death of Pope John XII in 964, during which time the popes were strongly influenced by the Theophylacti, a powerful and corrupt aristocratic family. [from mid-19th c.] [quotations ▼]

Alternative forms[edit]

Translations[edit]

[show ▼]±period of the papacy known as the saeculum obscurum

Noun[edit]

pornocracy (plural pornocracies)

  1. (derogatory, often figuratively) A government by, or dominated by, prostitutes or corrupt persons. [quotations ▼]
  2. (derogatory) A societal culture dominated by pornography. [quotations ▼]

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

[show ▼]±government by, or dominated by, prostitutes or corrupt persons
[show ▼]±societal culture dominated by pornography

References[edit]

  1. ^ Bartolomeo Platina; Onofrio Panvinio; Antonio Cicarelli; Giovanni Stringa; Abraamo Bzovio [i.e., Abraham Bzowski, known as Bzovius]; Antonio Bagatta; Nicol'Angelo Caferri (1663) Le vite de’ pontefici di Bartolomeo Platina: dal Saluator Nostro fino a Paolo II. Accresciute con quelle de’ papi da Sisto Quarto fino ad Alessandro VII., da Onofrio Panuinio, Antonio Cicarelli, Giouanni Stringa, Abraamo Bzouio e Antonio Bagatta. Con le annotationi del Panuinio, e con la Cronologia ecclesiastica dello stesso. Aggiuntoui la vita del Platina scritta dal Sign. Nicol’Angelo Caferri [The Lives of the Popes of Bartolomeo Platina: From Our Saviour to Paul II. Augmented with those of the Popes from Sixtus IV to Alexander VII, by Onofrio Panvinio, Antonio Cicarelli, Giovanni Stringa, Abraham Bzowski, and Antonio Bagatta. With the Annotations of Panvinio, and with the Ecclesiastical Chronology of the Same. Supplemented with the Life of Platina Written by Sign. Nicol’Angelo Caferri], Venice: Presso Gio, Maria Turrini, e Gio, Pietro Brigonci, OCLC 877151318.
  2. ^ "pornocracy" (US) / "pornocracy" (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.

Further reading[edit]

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pornocracy