Pronounced: long-GUHR, noun
Notes: This word is frequently pluralized
Yesterday’s word
The word libertine means, as a noun, a person who is morally unrestrained. As an adjective, it means “unrestrained by conventions or morality”
First usage
Our word came into English in the late 1300s
Background / Comments
Our word brings back the memory of the film “The Music Man” – pretty early in the film “Professor” Harold Hill (played by Robert Preston) is speaking against the new pool table… in part of his “Ya Got Trouble” spiel, he mentions “…libertine men and scarlet women and ragtime – shameless music!” I have run across our word in a few books, but usually older ones. Our word came from the Latin word libertinus (freedman), which came from liber (free).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 