masturbate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin masturbātus, the past participle of masturbor (“to masturbate”), a verb found in Martial;^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Etymonline allows that it may also be a back-formation from masturbation.^[7] Compare French masturber, used by de Sade around 1787.^[2] The origin of the Latin verb is disputed.^[2] The most widely accepted explanation derives it from manus (“hand”) and stuprō (“to defile”), from stuprum (“defilement, dishonour”), with the form remodelled after turbō (“to disturb”);^[2][4][7][8] Merriam-Webster gives the hand and stuprō as a possibility only.^[3] Collins, the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford call the Latin word of unknown origin, Collins noting that the derivation from manus and stuprō was formerly accepted.^[9][6][10] Etymonline mentions, after the OED, the alternative that the first element is an unattested word for the penis.^[7] The older English form was mastuprate, from the 17th century, which reflects the supposed Latin source.^[8][7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To stimulate the genitals of a person for sexual pleasure, as a transitive verb: 1819, in a translation of F. Swediaur's treatise on venereal diseases.^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date the word to 1839, the date of the OED's first intransitive use, in a translation of L. Deslandes's treatise on onanism,^[7][3][2] and Dictionary.com gives 1855–60.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The verb came late into English: the noun masturbation is recorded from 1711, and before it a 17th-century mastuprate and mastupration were in use;^[7][8] Cockeram's dictionary of 1623 glossed mastuprate as to touch one's private parts dishonestly.^[7][8] The earlier technical word for the practice was onanism.^[7] The sources disagree on which use came first: the OED has the transitive verb from 1819 and the intransitive from 1839,^[2] and the Shorter Oxford likewise puts the transitive use in the mid 19th century and the intransitive in the late 19th,^[10] while Etymonline dates the transitive use only to 1970.^[7]

Timeline

• 1819 – transitive, to stimulate the genitals of oneself or another.^[2]
• 1839 – intransitive, to stimulate one's own genitals.^[2][7][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stimulate one's own genitals for sexual pleasure.^[3][2][9]
2. To stimulate the genitals of oneself or of another person for sexual pleasure (transitive).^[9][3][2]

Word family

• masturbator
• masturbation
• masturbatory

Related words

• manual
• mastuprate
• onanism

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press