chaste

adjective

1)

her determination to remain chaste

Syn:

virginal, virgin, intact, maidenly, unmarried, unwed; celibate, abstinent, self-restrained, self-denying, continent; innocent, virtuous, pure, pure as the driven snow, sinless, undefiled, unsullied, immaculate; literary vestal

Ant:

promiscuous, immoral

2)

a chaste kiss on the cheek

Syn:

nonsexual, platonic, innocent

Ant:

passionate

3)

the dark, chaste interior

Syn:

plain, simple, bare, unadorned, undecorated, unornamented, unembellished, functional, no-frills, austere

Ant:

ostentatious

••

chaste, celibate

Chaste (= untainted by unlawful sexual intercourse; virtuous; sexually continent) is a word that applies to males and females alike — e.g.: "As a young and chaste boy, Yava said, he would often be called on to help construct the sand painting, lending the power of his purity." (Phoenix Gazette; June 4, 1993.) Unfortunately, however, a bias pervades the word's usual applications so that it typically refers to women and girls — e.g.: "One view is that a fallen woman who has fully reformed is chaste, while another is that chastity before marriage means physical virginity — a woman can be seduced only once. There is nothing unchaste about marital intercourse and hence, under either view, a widow or divorcee may be an unmarried female of previously chaste character." (Rollin M. Perkins and Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law, 3d ed.; 1982.)

There is also some confusion about the sense of chaste, as opposed to celibate. A person who is chaste is innocent of unlawful sex — that is, does not engage in sex with anyone other than the person's spouse. So, in both secular law and church law, a person who frequently has sex, but only with his or her spouse, is chaste. By contrast, a person who is celibate (in the word's original sense and still the only definition in the Oxford English Dictionary) abstains from marrying — and sex, too, but only as a consequence of the choice not to marry. The times have passed that meaning by, and today this traditional sense is obsolescent at best. It may remain current with the vow of celibacy that Catholic priests make (i.e., a promise not to marry). But it is almost universally understood, even in that context, to mean "abstaining from sex" — e.g.: "His case underscores the growing debate within the church over whether there is a place in the priesthood for gay men, even celibate ones." (Boston Globe; Nov. 25, 2002.) And while many word extensions result in the loss of a useful and unique term, here the shift in meaning of celibate has resulted in the creation of a term that has no good substitute — especially since chaste sounds archaic, carries outdated connotations about sex, and has drifted toward becoming gender-specific. — BG