libertine

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 15, 2020 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>libertine</strong> &#149; \LIB-er-teen\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p><strong>1</strong> <em>disparaging</em> <strong>:</strong> a freethinker especially in religious matters</p> <p><strong>2 :</strong> a person who is unrestrained by convention or morality; <em>specifically</em> <strong>:</strong> one leading a <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dissolute">dissolute</a> life</p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"Thus am I crushed between the upper <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/millstone">millstone</a> of the Mr Redford, who thinks me a <em>libertine</em>, and the nether popular critic, who thinks me a prude." — <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mrs_Warren_s_Profession/froVAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;dq=I+find+one+critic+so+explicit+as+to+the+nature+of+his+disappointment&amp;pg=PA141&amp;printsec=frontcover">George Bernard Shaw, <em>Mrs Warren's Profession</em>, 1902</a></p> <p>"Surprisingly, Grey hated the portrait, which she felt was unflattering. One wonders how she would have felt about being paired with Pitt, who had a reputation for being a <em>libertine</em> and a cruel husband." — <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/news/2020/08/cleveland-museum-of-art-refreshes-british-gallery-with-splash-of-color-new-purchases-references-to-sins-of-empire.html">Steven Litt, <em>The Plain Dealer</em> (Cleveland, Ohio), 30 Aug. 2020</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>"I only ask to be free," says Mr. Skimpole in Charles Dickens' <em>Bleak House</em>, and his words would undoubtedly have appealed to the world's first libertines. The word <em>libertinus</em> was used in early writings of Roman antiquity to describe a slave who had been set free (the Roman term for an emancipated slave was the Latin <em>li