" chasteness "

[Adjective]  | "chaste" | \ ˈchāst \

1: innocent of unlawful sexual intercourse

2: celibate

3: pure in thought and act : modest

Origin: 13th century ;

 Middle English, borrowed from Anglo-French chaste, caste (also continental Old French), going back to Latin castus "free from, untouched (by the thing specified), free from vice, holy, pure, not sexually promiscuous," of uncertain origin;

  * Note : The association of chaste with the moral precepts of the Christian church and hence the word's Latin source have most likely contributed to the preservation of the by French speakers. — Latin castus has been taken as a variant verbal adjective of careō, carēre "to be devoid of, lack, be free from" (transitive or with an ablative complement), for which the grammarian Priscian gives the verbal adjectives caritus and cassus. Ernout and Meillet (Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine) take castus as originally a religious term, "in conformity with rules or rites" ("qui se conforme aux règles ou aux rites"), and hence link it with Sanskrit śiṣṭá- "commanded, instructed" (from śā́sti "punishes, controls, commands, instructs"), with other senses secondary, by association with carēre. This is questionable, however, as the meaning "free from, pure" goes back to Plautus and see:ms primary. Ernout and Meillet regard carēre as without an etymology. Another hypothesis, taken up by J. Pokorny (Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch), see:s both castus and carēre as descended from an Indo-European verbal base *ḱes- "cut" (see: {castrate:1|castrate:1}); the assumption is that the original sense of carēre was "to be cut off from," which developed into "to be without, lack." This is not convincing as a semantic hypothesis; moreover, the vocalism would require an undesirable supposition such as *ḱəs-h1i̯e-, with an anaptyctic vowel (schwa secundum) and laryngeal. Compare {castigate|castigate}.;

[Noun]  | "chasteness" 

[Adjective]  | "chaste"