Etymologically
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hermaphroditus

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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]

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