promiscuity

Etymology

From French promiscuité

Noun

promiscuity (plural promiscuities)

1. The state or quality of being promiscuous.
   1. Indiscriminateness in the choice of sexual partners.

      Sexual promiscuity is dangerous to your health.

   • 1979, J.G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company, chapter 24:

     Seeing these happy pairings, I thought of the cheerful promiscuity to come. I felt a growing sexual need, not only for the young women brushing against me in the crowded street...

   1. (dated, literary) State of being mixed, composed of diverse elements, unsystematic; heterogeneity.
      • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 34

        While I dressed—for Stroeve wished me to go at once with him to the hospital—he told me that he had arranged for his wife to have a private room, so that she might at least be spared the sordid promiscuity of a ward.