genitalia

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin genitālia,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the neuter plural of genitālis (“of generation or birth, genital”), used as a noun,^[2][7][6] short for genitālia membra (“genital members”).^[8][6] The American Heritage Dictionary explains it as the plural of genitāle (“genital organ”).^[3] The adjective is from genitus, the past participle of gignō (“to beget”),^[8][6] from Proto-Indo-European *gene- (“to give birth, beget”).^[6] Etymonline notes that the Latin word also gave, with a different suffix, Old French genitoires (12th century), the source of Middle English and early modern English genitors, genitals.^[6] Genital came earlier from the same Latin adjective.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The genital organs: 1651, in T. Mocket's Christmas.^[2][4] Other dictionaries date the word much later: 1876 in Etymonline,^[6] 1875–80 in Dictionary.com,^[9] and the late 19th century in the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English.^[7][5]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept the sense of its Latin source, and is treated as a plural.^[2][7] Merriam-Webster notes that it is used especially of the external organs,^[4] while the Shorter Oxford includes both internal and external organs, of either sex.^[7] Etymonline counts it as a word of Modern Latin when it came into English use in the 1870s.^[6]

Timeline

• 1651 – the genital organs.^[2][4] Etymonline dates the word to 1876.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The reproductive organs, especially the external ones; the genitals: the genitalia of a beetle are used to tell the species apart.^[4][7][2]

Word family

• genitalic

Related words

• generative
• genital
• genus
• congenital
• progenitor

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House