impropriety

Etymology

From French impropriété, from Latin improprietās. By surface analysis, improper + -iety or im- + propriety.

noun

1. (uncountable) The condition of being improper.
   To see the impropriety of this noninformative prior, note that the posterior results (2.19)–(2.22) can be justified by as [sic] combining the likelihood function with the following ‘prior density’: […] 2003, Gary Koop, Bayesian Econometrics (John Wiley & Sons Ltd.), p. 23
2. (countable) An improper act.
   Bayh and his supporters ended up maintaining that it was no longer sufficient that a nominee had not engaged in any impropriety; now there must be no "appearance" of impropriety. Thus opponents of a nominee could raise an "appearance" of impropriety by false charges and thereby defeat him. It was a vicious circle: the nominee would not be condemned for what he had done but for what he had been accused of having done by his detractors. 1978, Richard Nixon, RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 421
3. Improper language.