PIACULOUS ADJ. 1. requiring expiation; sinful, wicked, blameworthy - 1646 obs. 2. making expiation or atonement - 1780 rare ETYMOLOGY from classical Latin piaculum (expiatory offering, act of atonement, action which calls for expiation, sin ) + -ous (suffix) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1646 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...The set and statary times of pairing of nails, and cutting of hair, is thought by many a point of consideration; which is perhaps but the continuation of an ancient superstition. For piaculous it was unto the Romanes to pare their nails upon the Nundinae, observed every ninth day; and was also feared by others in certain daies of the week...." From: Pseudodoxia Epidemica: Or Enquiries Into Very Many Received Tenents And Commonly Presumed Truths - Thomas Browne
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