commess
Good-natured trouble; mischief; hanky-panky or high jinks.
uncountable
Romance, tragedy, a simply sweet love story, shame and scandal in the family, bacchanal, commess and sex at its best have been depicted in thousands of romance novels for generations.
Gossip about local scandals.
uncountable
Even the recognition that commess is a pervasive feature of village life does not affect the judgment that it is alien to respectability, to mainstream morality and behavioral propriety. Again villagers are faced with a contradiction between needing to act out their disapproval of deviant sexual activity and their belief that commess is antithetical to good manners and a commitment to mainstream moral and behavioral norms.
Where it comes from
Late 20th c., via French Creole, from French commerce "business".
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry commess (CC BY-SA 4.0).