Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
eunuch [yoo-nuh k] ExamplesWord Origin noun
- a castrated man, especially one formerly employed by rulers in the Middle East and Asia as a harem guard or palace official.
Origin of eunuch 1350–1400; Middle English eunuk Latin eunūchus Greek eunoûchos eunuch, chamberlain, equivalent to eune-, stem of eunḗ bed, place of sleeping + -ochos keeping (akin to échein to hold Examples from the Web for eunuch Contemporary Examples of eunuch
Christianity arrived in Sudan, about 125 miles northeast of Khartoum, with the eunuch minister of Queen Candice in 35 AD.
In Sudan a Pregnant Woman May Be Hanged for Marrying a Christian
Nina Shea
May 17, 2014
Historical Examples of eunuch
Ere the queen could reply, a eunuch entered, and whispered Boabdil.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
His voice was high pitched and his whole manner suggested that of a eunuch.
August Forel
Orleans himself may desire it, but the man is a eunuch in crime; he would, but he can’t.
Rafael Sabatini
(b) His justification or raison d’tre explanation of the eunuch system.
Xenophon
The faithfulness of the eunuch has its parallel in that of the old negro slave.
Xenophon
British Dictionary definitions for eunuch eunuch noun
- a man who has been castrated, esp (formerly) for some office such as a guard in a harem
- informal an ineffective mana political eunuch
Word Origin for eunuch C15: via Latin from Greek eunoukhos attendant of the bedchamber, from eunē bed + ekhein to have, keep Word Origin and History for eunuch n.
late 14c., from Middle French eunuque and directly from Latin eunuchus, from Greek eunoukhos “castrated man,” originally “guard of the bedchamber or harem,” from euno-, comb. form of eune “bed,” of unknown origin, + -okhos, from stem of ekhein “to have, hold” (see scheme (n.)).
The Greek and Latin forms of the word were used to translate Hebrew saris, which sometimes meant merely “palace official,” in Septuagint and Vulgate, probably without an intended comment on the qualities of bureaucrats.
Eunuches is he þat is i-gilded, and suche were somtyme i-made wardeynes of ladyes in Egipt. [John of Trevisa, translation of Higdon’s Polychronicon, 1387] eunuch in Medicine eunuch [yōō′nək] n.
- A man or boy whose testes have been removed or have never developed.