genital

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English genital, also genytale,^[2][3] partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman genitaile and genitaille, genital,^[4][5][6] and partly directly borrowed from Latin genitālis (“of or concerned with procreation; of one's birth”).^[4][7][8][9] The Latin adjective is formed from genitus, the past participle of gignō (“to beget”), and the suffix -ālis;^[4][8][10] Barnhart derives it from a lost noun *geneta (“birth”).^[3] The verb is from Proto-Indo-European *gene- (“to give birth, beget”),^[7][9] the same base as kin.^[4][8] In Old French the adjective is recorded from the 13th century, earliest in parties genitales (“genital parts”).^[4] The plural noun genitals follows genitālia and genitailles.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the organs of reproduction, in membres genytal, the genitals: before 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[4][3][7]

Semantic evolution

The English word first meant "pertaining to generation, reproductive", and came to mean "pertaining to the sex organs".^[7][3] The plural noun genitals is recorded before 1393, in Gower's Confessio Amantis, first of the male organs;^[4][2] the singular noun followed about 1450 and is now rare.^[4][7] From 1652 to 1876 the adjective was used, rarely, of a god or goddess presiding over birth, after the Latin dii genitales;^[4] in Latin Genitalis was also a by-name of the goddess Diana.^[7] In 1918 Freudian psychoanalysis gave it the sense of the final, adult stage of psychosexual development.^[4][11]

Timeline

• before 1382 – of the organs of reproduction.^[4][3]
• before 1393 – plural noun genitals.^[4][2]
• c. 1450 – singular noun, a sex organ.^[4]
• 1652 – of a god, presiding over birth (rare, obsolete by 1876).^[4]
• 1918 – the genital stage in psychoanalysis.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to the sexual organs or to reproduction: a genital infection.^[11][8][4]
2. (psychoanalysis) Relating to the final stage of psychosexual development, in which mature sexual relations with others are formed.^[11][8][4]

Noun

1. genitals (plural): the reproductive organs, especially the external ones.^[4][6][2]
2. (rare) A single external reproductive organ.^[4][7]

Word family

• genitally
• postgenital
• pregenital
• subgenital
• urinogenital
• urogenital
• female genital mutilation
• genital herpes

Related words

• genitals
• congenital
• genitive
• progenitor
• genus
• gene
• kin

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins