masturbation

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French masturbation,^[2] which the OED finds about 1590 in Montaigne's essays,^[2] and probably also directly borrowed from New Latin masturbatio,^[3][4][5] a noun of action from masturbātus, the past participle of Latin masturbor (“to masturbate”).^[3][6][5] The Latin verb, used by Martial, is of disputed origin.^[2] The most widely accepted explanation derives it from manus (“hand”) and stuprō (“to defile”), remodelled after turbō (“to disturb”);^[2][6][7][3] stuprō comes from stuprum (“defilement, dishonour”).^[3][6] The OED also mentions an unattested first element meaning "penis".^[3] The English forms mastupration (1621, in Burton's “Anatomy of Melancholy”) and mastuprate (1623) are variants shaped after that explanation;^[4][3][2] the OED's evidence suggests that masturbation replaced mastupration as the usual term in the early 18th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Stimulation of one's own genitals for sexual pleasure: 1603, in the form maisterbation, in John Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essays;^[2] the OED suggests that this form was perhaps remodelled after maister, a variant of master.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to 1711 and Barnhart to 1766, in A. Hume's Onanism.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that an earlier technical word for the act was onanism.^[3] The OED records a figurative use from 1820, in a letter of Byron's.^[2] The verb masturbate is a back-formation from the noun, or comes from the Latin past participle;^[3][7] Etymonline dates it to 1839 and Barnhart to 1857.^[3][4] Its transitive use, of masturbating another person, is recorded by 1970.^[3] The phrase mutual masturbation denotes two people stimulating each other's genitals.^[8]

Timeline

• 1603 – maisterbation, in Florio's Montaigne.^[2]
• 1621 – the earlier form mastupration.^[4][3]
• 1711 – the form masturbation in Etymonline.^[3]
• 1766 – in A. Hume's Onanism.^[4]
• 1820 – figurative use.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The stimulation of one's own genitals, usually by hand, for sexual pleasure, often to orgasm.^[2][5][8]
2. The stimulation of another person's genitals by hand.^[2][8]
3. (figurative) Self-indulgent activity that gratifies only the doer.^[2]

Word family

• masturbational
• masturbator

Related words

• masturbate
• masturbatory
• mastupration
• manual
• disturb
• stupid

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press