hermaphroditus

Forms

hermaphrodītus m (genitive hermaphrodītī); second declension^[1][2] As an adjective, hermaphrodītus, -a, -um.^[1] Medieval spellings include hermofroditus and ermaphroditus.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἑρμαφρόδιτος (hermaphróditos, “hermaphrodite”),^[4][3][2] originally the name of Hermaphroditus, son of Ἑρμῆς (Hermês) and Ἀφροδίτη (Aphrodítē), whose name joins those of his parents.^[3][5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest example in the OLD is a line of the comic poet Titinius, “quasi hermaphroditus fimbriatum frontem gestas”, “like a hermaphrodite, you wear your forehead fringed”.^[1]

Semantic evolution

In myth it was the two-sexed divinity formed when the son of Hermes and Aphrodite grew into one body with the nymph Salmacis, as Ovid tells.^[1][2] Pliny the Elder says that people of both sexes are born, “quos hermaphroditos vocamus”, once called androgyni and held to be prodigies, but now kept as delights;^[2] he also uses the word as an adjective, of mares.^[2] Martial and Gellius use it too.^[2][3]

Medieval spellings include hermafroditus, ermafroditus and afroditus, and Old High German glossed it wibillo and widillo.^[3] English took it in the late 14th century, first as harmofroditus.^[6]

Timeline

• end of the 2nd/beginning of the 1st century BC – Titinius uses it of a person in a comedy.^[1][3]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid tells the myth of Hermaphroditus and Salmacis.^[1][2][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of people of both sexes, and as an adjective of mares.^[2][3]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it.^[3]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as harmofroditus.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (capitalised) Hermaphroditus, a two-sexed divinity, son of Hermes and Aphrodite, who grew into one body with the nymph Salmacis.^[1][2]
2. A hermaphrodite, a person combining the characteristics of both sexes.^[1][2]

Adjective

1. Combining the characteristics of both sexes.^[1][2]

Related words

• androgynus
• English hermaphrodite

Usage notes

Pliny gives androgynī as the older name for such people.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com