Promiscuous means casual and indiscriminate, especially about sex. Promiscuous behaviour, a promiscuous mixture, promiscuously applied.
The sexual sense is by far the commonest and is judgemental, applied historically far more to women than to men. The older and neutral sense means mixed without order — a promiscuous heap, promiscuous seating — and survives in technical writing about, for instance, promiscuous mode on a network card, which accepts all traffic. Note promiscuity; and that the Latin means simply mixed.
1adjectivepromiscuousCasual and indiscriminate, especially about sex.
“The film was criticised for showing promiscuous behaviour as harmless fun.”
2adjectivemixedMixed without order.
“The attic held a promiscuous jumble of toys, letters and broken furniture.”
promiscuous is a quality of indiscriminateness.
Latin promiscuus means mixed or not separated — pro plus miscere, to mix. Miscellaneous, mixture and meddle come from the same mixing.
Proto-Indo-European
*per-
Latin
prōmiscuus — mixed, not separated
English, today
promiscuous
Built from
From Latin prōmiscuus (“mixed, not separated”), from prō (“forth”) + misceō (“mix”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA