ejaculate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ēiaculor (“to throw out, shoot out”), through its past participle stem,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} perhaps under the influence of Middle French éjaculer.^[4] The Latin verb is formed from ex- (“out”) and iaculor (“to throw, hurl, dart”),^[2][3][7][8] from iaculum (“javelin, dart”),^[2][3][9] from iaciō (“to throw”),^[3][10][9] from Proto-Indo-European *ye- (“to throw, impel”).^[3][7] The same Latin verb with ex- gave eject,^[10] and Barnhart and Klein refer it to jet.^[4][9] The noun ejaculation came in 1603, borrowed from French éjaculation.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To discharge fluids from the body: 1578, in John Banister's Historie of Man.^[2][6][4] Etymonline dates the word to the 1570s with the sense "to emit semen".^[3]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that the word means etymologically "to dart out".^[10] Early on it was also used in the general sense of throwing or shooting something out suddenly, from 1609 until the 18th century,^[2][5] and Johnson (1755) defined it only as "to throw; to shoot; to dart out".^[11] The sense "to utter suddenly" appears in 1666, in Pepys's diary;^[2][3][4] the OED notes that it was first used of short prayers and later of any brief exclamation.^[2] The intransitive sense, to emit semen, is dated by the Shorter Oxford to the late 19th century,^[5] and the noun, ejaculated semen, to 1927.^[2][6]

Timeline

• 1578 – to discharge fluids from the body.^[2][6][4]
• 1609 – to dart or shoot something out suddenly (obsolete by 1762).^[2]
• 1666 – to utter suddenly, at first a short prayer.^[2][4]
• 1927 – noun, ejaculated semen.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To discharge semen in orgasm.^[12][6][5]
2. To say something suddenly and briefly, especially with strong feeling; to blurt out: “Not again!” he ejaculated.^[12][6][2]
3. To eject a fluid from the body.^[6][2]
4. (obsolete) To throw or shoot out something suddenly and swiftly, like a dart.^[6][2][5]

Noun

1. The semen released in one ejaculation.^{[6][12][5][2]}

Word family

• ejaculator
• ejaculation
• ejaculatory
• unejaculated

Related words

• eject
• ejection
• interjaculate
• jaculate
• jet

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins