virgin English · revision 5811

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1200|origins=la virgo}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: UK /ˈvɜː.dʒɪn/, US /ˈvɝː.dʒɪn/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is Middle English virgine, [[bor|fro|virgine|t=virgin; the Virgin Mary]] (modern French vierge),^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986) a learned borrowing of [[la|virgō|t=maiden, unwedded girl]] (stem virgin-), also an adjective “fresh, unused”,^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) probably related to [[m|la|virga|t=young shoot, twig]] through the notion of youth.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) Barnhart traces it further to PIE *weis-g- “bending, pliant”.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ An unmarried or chaste woman revered in the Church: about 1200 in the OED and Etymonline, probably before 1200 in Barnhart, in the Trinity Homilies.^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ A woman who has never had sexual intercourse is from before 1310,^(OED 1989) and the Virgin Mary from before 1300.^(OED 1989) The word was applied to men as well as women in Middle English, about 1330, and in the plural to both before 1325.^(Barnhart 1988) As an adjective, “pure, fresh, unused”, it was first said of wax about 1300, of honey and untilled soil in the mid-15th century, and of snow in the 16th;^(Etymonline) ''virgin'' for “new, unused” is in Shakespeare's ''Midsummer Night's Dream'' (1590).^(Barnhart 1988) A naive or inexperienced person is from 1953.^(OED 1989) The Virgin Islands were named in Spanish by Columbus for St Ursula and her 11,000 virgin martyrs.^(Etymonline) ''Virginal'', the keyboard instrument of the 16th century, was perhaps so called because it was meant for young ladies.^(Hoad 1986)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1200 – a chaste woman of the Church.^(OED 1989)

+ * c. 1300 – virgin wax, pure.^(Etymonline)

+ * a1300 – the Virgin Mary.^(OED 1989)

+ * a1310 – a woman who has not had sex.^(OED 1989)

+ * c. 1330 – of men.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1953 – an inexperienced person.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A person who has never had [[sexual intercourse]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(the Virgin)'' The [[Virgin Mary]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A woman who has taken a religious vow of [[chastity]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(informal)'' A person with no experience of something: ''a political virgin''.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Not yet used, touched or explored: ''virgin forest''.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # Of oil, obtained from the first pressing; not processed.^(AHD)

+ # Chaste, or of a virgin.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[unvirgin]]

+ * [[Virginia]]

+ * [[extra-virgin]]

+ * [[virginal]]

+ * [[virginity]]

+ * [[vestal virgin]]

+ * [[virgin birth]]

+ * [[Virgin Islands]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[Virgo]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}