licit

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

From Latin licitus (“lawful”), perfect participle of licet (“[it] is permitted”, impersonal verb).

For if it were licit to love, it were more licit to express it and this expression should be reciprocal. — The Loyalist: A Story of the American Revolution, James Francis Barrett
As a wayward Fancy, tired at times, of the cultured Damask Rose, Drifts away to the tangled copse, where the wild Anemone grows; So the ordered and licit love ashore, is hardly fresh and free As this light love in the open wind and salt of the outer sea. — India's Love Lyrics, Laurence Hope
Now, I wish to show what to my knowledge has never been clearly pointed out, that belief (as measured by action) not only does and must continually outstrip scientific evidence, but that there is a certain class of truths of whose reality belief is a factor as well as a confessor; and that as regards this class of truths faith is not only licit and pertinent, but essential and indispensable. — The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, William James

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