éjaculation

Forms

éjaculation f (plural éjaculations)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French éjaculer + -ation, from the stem of the verb.^[2][1][3] The verb is from Latin ēiaculor (“to throw out, hurl”).^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rabelais uses it in 1552, in the Quart Livre, in the general sense of a throwing or projection: ejaculations etherées.^[2] The GLLF reads that phrase as a name for precipitation falling from the sky.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The general sense “the act of throwing out” has always been rare.^[5] From 1611, when Cotgrave records it, the word is a term of physiology,^[2][4] and its usual sense became the emission of sperm, which the GLLF dates to Miège in 1688.^[4][5]

From 1611 it also meant a short, fervent prayer, a figurative use taken from Latin and akin to the oraisons jaculatoires of devotional language; this sense has gone out of use.^[5][4] Littré also records an old term of physics for the emission of light.^[6]

Timeline

• 1552 – Rabelais uses ejaculations etherées in the Quart Livre.^[2][4]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records the physiological sense.^[2][4]
• 1611 – The figurative sense “short, fervent prayer” appears.^[5]
• 1688 – Miège records the sense “emission of sperm”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of discharging a fluid secreted by the body in a quick jet.^[2][7]
2. In particular, the emission of sperm at orgasm: éjaculation précoce, premature ejaculation.^[7][8]
3. (obsolete, figurative) A short, fervent prayer.^[4][6]

Related words

• éjaculer
• éjaculateur
• éjaculatoire
• Latin ēiaculor

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)