Salacious is an adjective that goes back to the mid-1600s. We will examine the definition of the word salacious, where it came from and some examples of its use in sentences.
Salacious describes someone or something that displays an inappropriate amount of interest in sexual matters, someone or something that is lecherous, something that details sexual matters for no reason. A person, joke, book or report may be salacious. Often, the word salacious is used to refer to gossip or published reports that are written to appeal to prurient interests in order to sell well. Related words are salaciously and salaciousness. The word salacious is derived from the Latin word salax which means fond of leaping, referring to a male animal mounting a female animal while mating.
Examples
Activist and author Zainab Salbi hopes that her new five-part PBS series #MeToo Now What? — which bows Feb. 2 — will go beyond the salacious headlines and deepen the conversation by deconstructing how we got here and how we can harness this moment for real change across society. (The Hollywood Reporter)
The document claims the Justice Department and FBI officials used information from the salacious and unverified “Trump dossier,” authored by ex-British spy Christopher Steele, to obtain and renew a surveillance warrant against Page. (The Washington Examiner)
But her relative silence and independent travel in recent weeks is set against a salacious backdrop: A Wall Street Journal report that the porn star Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000 just before the 2016 election to keep quiet about an affair she had had a decade earlier with Mr. Trump — when the Trumps were newlyweds, and soon after Mrs. Trump gave birth to their son, Barron. (The New York Times)