orgasm

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin orgasmus (“excitement or violent action in a bodily organ”),^[2][3][4] or, according to several dictionaries, also French orgasme.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} The OED finds the Latin word from 1652, and the French one from 1611 in Cotgrave (in the sense of rage), 1623 of a bodily organ and 1777 in the sexual sense;^[2] Weekley quotes Cotgrave's gloss, "an extreme fit, or expression of anger".^[10] The Latin noun is from Ancient Greek ὀργασμός (orgasmós, “excitement, swelling”), which the OED finds in scholia on Hippocrates,^[2][6][11] from ὀργάω (orgáō, “to swell with moisture, be excited; to be in heat”),^{[2][6][11][1]} from ὀργή (orgḗ, “natural impulse, temperament; anger”).^{[2][6][11][12]} The Greek noun is compared with Old Irish ferc (“anger”) and with a Sanskrit word for nourishment and vigour,^{[11][6][12][3]} from a root that Etymonline gives as Proto-Indo-European *wrog- (“to burgeon, swell with strength”) and Barnhart as *werǵ- (“to swell with sap”).^[6][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A sudden movement, spasm or convulsion: 1671, in G. Thomson, a sense obsolete after 1824.^[2] Barnhart dates the word from 1684, as excitement or violent action in an organ or part,^[11] and Etymonline from the 1680s, already as sexual climax.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The physiological sense, excitement of a bodily organ with swelling, narrowed to the sexual one:^[7][2] the OED first finds a surge of sexual excitement, or the rut of animals, in 1754,^[2][3] and Barnhart dates the sense "climax of sexual excitement" from 1802.^[11] The figurative sense, violent excitement, rage or an outburst of it, appears before 1763 in Shenstone,^[2][11][6] and is now rare.^[2][4] Johnson (1755) defined the word only as "sudden vehemence".^[13] The verb, to experience an orgasm, is recorded from 1973,^[2][6] or 1972 in Merriam-Webster,^[3] at first and usually of women;^[6] the adjective orgasmic dates from 1935.^[11]

Timeline

• 1671 – a spasm or convulsion (obsolete by 1824).^[2]
• 1684 – excitement or violent action in an organ or part.^[11]
• 1754 – a surge of sexual excitement; the rut.^[2][3]
• before 1763 – violent excitement, rage.^[2][11]
• 1802 – the climax of sexual excitement.^[11]
• 1935 – the adjective orgasmic.^[11]
• 1973 – the verb, to have an orgasm.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The peak of sexual excitement, with an intensely pleasurable release of tension and, in men, ejaculation.^[4][3][2]
2. (rare) Intense or violent excitement; an outburst of rage.^[4][2][3]
3. (obsolete) Swelling and excitement of a bodily organ.^[3][7]

Verb

1. To have an orgasm.^[3][2]

Word family

• orgasmic
• superorgasm

Related words

• orgiastic
• organism

References

1. ^ a b c 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 q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.