parthenophile

English

Etymology

partheno- +‎ -phile

Noun

parthenophile (plural parthenophiles)

1. One who is sexually attracted to adolescent girls, particularly virgins
   • 1914 Leon Pierce Clark, A Critical Digest of Some of the Newer Work Upon Homosexuality in Man and Woman State Hospital Bulletin - Volume 7 - Page 351-352

     According to the age of the attracting person homosexuals are divisible into ephebophiles (lovers of youths, 14-21), androphiles (grown men up to the period of old age), gerontophiles (lovers of the aged) and pedophiles (lovers of small boys). The two latter are not as conspicuous as the two former, which compromise 45 per cent of the whole. The corresponding divisions in women are parthenophiles (lovers of young women, virgins), gynecophiles (lovers of adult women), grasphiles (lovers of old women), and korophiles (lovers of undeveloped girls).

   • 1968, Ramon Guthrie, Asbestos Phoenix: "Wunday the Worst of Weptober", 6th passage‎^[1], page 99:

     Even for Caliban's unpeopled isle
     Still taunted by the fragrance of Miranda.
     Father Gilhooly, plump parthenophile,
     Peeps through the alders, praying in the while
     Saint Nicholas will send her comfort and a
     Great cuddly plush, yet somehow sentient, panda.

     (this also appears on page 19 of The Carleton Miscellany, Volume 9 Number 4, Fall 1968)

   • 2005, Strange Attractor - Volume 2, page 212:

     So before damning Waldo Sabine, the parthenophile, I would draw your attention to an English proverb first recorded in 1670, “Eggs of an hour, fish of ten [hours], bread of a day, a woman of fifteen..."

   • 2016, Encyclopedia of Homosexuality‎^[2], page 361:

     in his 1914 magnum opus, Die Homosexualitat des Mannes und des Weibes, Hirschfeld specified the range of love objects as from "the beginning to the completion of maturity, so approximately ages 14-21." The German research estimated that 45 of all homosexuals were ephebophiles. For women, he used the term "parthenophiles."

   • 2020, How We Use Stories and Why That Matters‎^[3], page 250:

     evolution is not 'interested': it does not proceed from the intentions of individual actors, be they scheming women or parthenophile (virgin-loving) men

Related terms

• parthenophilia

See also

• ephebophile (for sexual attraction to adolescent boys)
• korophile (for sexual attraction to pre-adolescent girls)