Category:Libertine

Lib"er*tine, n. Etym: [L. libertinus freedman, from libertus one made free, fr. liber free: cf. F. libertin. See Liberal.]

1. (Rom. Antiq.)

Defn: A manumitted slave; a freedman; also, the son of a freedman.

2. (Eccl. Hist.)

Defn: One of a sect of Anabaptists, in the fifteenth and early part of the sixteenth century, who rejected many of the customs and decencies of life, and advocated a community of goods and of women.

3. One free from restraint; one who acts according to his impulses and desires; now, specifically, one who gives rein to lust; a rake; a debauchee. Like a puffed and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads. Shak.

4. A defamatory name for a freethinker. [Obsoles.]

libertine Lib"er*tine, a. Etym: [L. libertinus of a freedman: cf. F. libertin. See Libertine, n. ]

1. Free from restraint; uncontrolled. [Obs.] You are too much libertine. Beau. & Fl.

2. Dissolute; licentious; profligate; loose in morals; as, libertine principles or manners. Bacon.

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---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Libertine - Found only Acts 6:9, one who once had been a slave, but who had been set at liberty, or the child of such a person. In this case the name probably denotes those descendants of Jews who had been carried captives to Rome as prisoners of war by Pompey and other Roman generals in the Syrian wars, and had afterwards been liberated. In A.D. 19 these manumitted Jews were banished from Rome. Many of them found their way to Jerusalem, and there established a synagogue.