procacity

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noun

The state of being procacious; forwardness, pertness, or petulance, or an instance thereof.

OriginMiddle French procacité ← Latin procācitās →
Scrabble 18
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Meanings

nounprocacity (usually uncountable, plural procacities)

plural procacities

  1. dateduncountableusuallyThe state of being procacious; forwardness, pertness, or petulance, or an instance thereof.

    In vain are all your flatteries, In vain are all your knaveries, Delights, deceipts, procacities, Sighs, kisses, and conspiracies, And what e're is done by art, To bewitch a lovers heart.

    1624, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy: What it Is, with All the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Seuerall Cures of it : in Three Partitions, with Their Severall Sections, Members & Subsections, 2nd edition, Henry Cripps, published 1638, page 541

Origin

  1. Latinprocāx“bold, impudent”
  2. Latinprocācitās
  3. Middle Frenchprocacité
  4. Englishprocacity

From Middle French procacité, from Latin procācitās (whence -acity), from Latin procāx (“bold, impudent”), from procō (“ask, demand”), from procus (“suitor”).

More words from Middle French, Latin

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

procacity. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/procacity

MLA

“procacity.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/procacity. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “procacity,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/procacity.

Source: procacity on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.