masturbor

Forms

masturbor (present infinitive masturbārī, perfect active masturbātus sum); first conjugation, deponent, no passive^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[1][2] The OLD and Lewis and Short tentatively analyse it as from Latin manus (“hand”) + stuprō (“to defile”),^[3][4][5] and the TLL sees in it a deformed *manstuprō, “to commit an act of lewdness by hand”.^[2] Wiktionary notes that in that case the /a/ would be expected to be long, as in mōnstrum, and that the form may have been influenced by turbō “to disturb”, which older explanations take as the second part.^[1] Watkins proposed instead Proto-Indo-European *mostr̥gʰ-, from a word for marrow.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Martial (40–102/103 AD), meaning “to masturbate”.^[3][4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

The word is rare: the dictionaries cite only Martial, who also has masturbātus for a man who does it.^[5] Glossaries record an active form, masturbat, glossed with Greek words for the same act.^[4][5]

English masturbate (1839) is a back-formation from masturbation, or else is taken from the Latin participle masturbātus.^[7]

Timeline

• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it in his epigrams.^[3][5][6]
• 1839 – English masturbate is first recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To masturbate.^[3][4][6]

Word family

• masturbātor

Related words

• stuprō
• English masturbate

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com