libido

See also: Libido and libidó

English

Etymology

From Latin libīdō (“lust, desire”). Used originally in psychoanalytic contexts.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /lɪˈbiː.dəʊ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːdəʊ

Noun

libido (countable and uncountable, plural libidos)

1. (common usage) Sexual urges or drives.

   Synonym: horniness (vulgar)

   Antonym: boredom

   Good grief man, control your libido!

   • 1991, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, in Nevermind, performed by Nirvana:

     A mulatto, an albino / A mosquito, my libido

2. (psychology) Drives or mental energies related to or based on sexual instincts but not necessarily sexual in and of themselves.

   Antonym: destrudo

   Hypernym: drive

   For Freudians, libido means the desire to "unite and bind" with objects in the world.

   The ego as an organ which seeks to synthesize thoughts in the psyche is said to be driven by libido or eros.

3. (astronomy, archaic or misused, an occasional carry-over from astrology to astronomy) Synonym of albedo in terms of a planet's, such as that of Mars, average surface spectral reflectivity.

Translations

sexual urges or drives

• Arabic: غَرِيزَة جِنْسِيَّة‎ f (ḡarīza jinsiyya)

  Egyptian Arabic: ليبيدو‎ m (libido)

• Armenian: լիբիդո (hy) (libido)
• Catalan: libido f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 性衝動 (zh), 性冲动 (zh) (xìngchōngdòng)

• Dutch: libido (nl) m
• Esperanto: volupto
• Estonian: libiido, iha, sugutung
• Finnish: halut pl, libido (fi), himot pl
• French: libido (fr) m
• German: Libido (de) f, sexuelle Begierde f
• Hebrew: תשוקה‎ (he) f (tshuká), לִיבִּידוֹ‎ (he) m (libido)

• Hungarian: libidó (hu)
• Indonesian: libido (id)
• Japanese: 性衝動 (せいしょうどう, seishōdō)
• Maori: taera
• Persian: لیبیدو‎ (libido, libidu)
• Polish: libido (pl) n, popęd seksualny m, pożądanie seksualne n, chuć (pl) f
• Portuguese: libido (pt) f
• Romanian: libido (ro) n
• Russian: либи́до (ru) n (libído)
• Slovene: libído m
• Spanish: libido (es) f
• Swedish: libido (sv) c
• Tagalog: iyag, libog

drives or mental energies related or based on sexual instincts but not necessarily sexual in and of themselves.

• Armenian: լիբիդո (hy) (libido)
• Catalan: libido f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 性力 (xìnglì), 力比多 (lìbǐduō)

• Dutch: libido (nl)
• Finnish: libido (fi), elämänvoima
• French: libido (fr) f
• German: Libido (de) f
• Hebrew: לִיבִּידוֹ‎ (he) m (libido)

• Indonesian: libido (id)
• Irish: libídeo m
• Japanese: リビドー (ribidō)
• Korean: 리비도 (ko) (libido)
• Polish: libido (pl) n
• Portuguese: libido (pt) f
• Russian: либи́до (ru) n (libído)
• Spanish: libido (es) f
• Turkish: libido (tr)

See also

• nymphomaniac, hypersexuality, masturbator

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin libīdō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li.bi.do/

Noun

libido f (usually uncountable, plural libidos)

1. libido

Derived terms

• libidinal

Further reading

• “libido” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Italian

Noun

libido f (invariable)

1. (psychoanalysis) libido

See also

• libidine

Anagrams

• bolidi

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Latin

Alternative forms

• lubīdō

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /liˈbiː.doː/, [lʲɪˈbiː.d̪oː]

Noun

libīdō f (genitive libīdinis); third declension

1. pleasure, inclination, fancy, longing
2. caprice, passion, wantonness
   • 55 BCE, Cicero, De Oratore 3.1:

     haec tibi est incidenda lingua, quā vel ēvulsa spīritū ipsō libīdinem tuam lībertās mea refūtābit.

     (For that) you must sever this tongue of mine, and even if it is torn out, the freedom in my very breath will confound your wantonness.

3. lust, sensuality

   Libīdō vincit omnia.

   Lust fetters everything.

   • c. 4 BCE – 65 CE, Seneca the Younger, De brevitate vitae 7:

     In prīmīs autem et illōs numerō quī nūllī reī nisi vīnō ac libīdinī vacant; nūllī enim turpius occupātī sunt.

     But among the worst I count also those who have time for nothing but wine and lust; for none have more shameful engrossments.

   • 121 CE, Suetonius, De vita Caesarum 3.44:

     Maiōre adhūc ac turpiōre īnfāmiā flagrāvit, vix ut referrī audīrīve, nēdum crēdī fās sit, quasi puerōs prīmae teneritūdinis, quōs pisciculōs vocābat, īnstitueret, ut natantī sibi inter femina versārentur ac lūderent linguā morsūque sēnsim adpetentēs; atque etiam quasi īnfantēs firmiōrēs, necdum tamen lacte dēpulsōs, inguinī ceu papillae admovēret, prōnior sānē ad id genus libīdinis et nātūrā et aetāte.

     He was excited with a greater and more shameful infamy, that hardly can be told or heard, by no means be believed to be allowed by the gods, like how he trained little boys of the tenderest age, which he called 'little fish', to go around between his thighs and rouse his senses with the tongue and by biting, while he was swimming; or even how he put stronger babies, not weaned yet, to his genitals as if to nipples, certainly more inclined to this kind of lechery by nature as well as by age.

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	libīdō	libīdinēs
Genitive	libīdinis	libīdinum
Dative	libīdinī	libīdinibus
Accusative	libīdinem	libīdinēs
Ablative	libīdine	libīdinibus
Vocative	libīdō	libīdinēs

Derived terms

• libīdinōsus

Related terms

• libet
• libīdinōsē
• libita

Descendants

• English: libido
• French: libido
• Italian: libido
• Russian: либи́до (libído)
• Spanish: libido

References

• libido in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• libido in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• libido in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • anger is defined as a passionate desire for revenge: iracundiam sic (ita) definiunt, ut ulciscendi libidinem esse dicant or ut u. libido sit or iracundiam sic definiunt, ulc. libidinem
    
  • to be carried away by one's passions: libidine ferri
    
  • to abandon oneself (entirely) to debauchery: se (totum) libidinibus dedere
    
  • to bridle one's desires: refrenare cupiditates, libidines
    
  • to arouse some one's lust: libidinem alicuius excitare
    
  • the passions win the day: libido dominatur (Or. 65. 219)
    
  • the storm of passion has abated: libido consēdit
    

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Portuguese

Noun

libido f (plural libidos)

1. (psychology) libido (sexual urges or drives)
2. (psychology) libido (drives based on sexual instincts)

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Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Latin libīdō

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lǐbido/
• Hyphenation: li‧bi‧do

Noun

lìbido m (Cyrillic spelling лѝбидо)

1. libido

Declension

Declension of libido

	singular	plural
nominative	libido	libida
genitive	libida	libida
dative	libidu	libidima
accusative	libido	libida
vocative	libido	libida
locative	libidu	libidima
instrumental	libidom	libidima

Related terms

• lȉbidinōzan

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Slovene

Etymology

From Latin libīdō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /líːbidɔ/

Noun

lȋbido m inan

1. libido

Inflection

Masculine inan., hard o-stem
nom. sing.	líbido
gen. sing.	líbida
	singular	dual	plural
nominative	líbido	líbida	líbidi
accusative	líbido	líbida	líbide
genitive	líbida	líbidov	líbidov
dative	líbidu	líbidoma	líbidom
locative	líbidu	líbidih	líbidih
instrumental	líbidom	líbidoma	líbidi

Derived terms

• libidinózen

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Spanish

Etymology

From Latin libīdo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /liˈbido/, [liˈβiðo]

  There is a certain tendency to pronounce libido as /'li.bi.do/ due to the influence of lívido, but this pronounciation is incorrect according to the Spanish orthography and thus not recommended.

• Rhymes: -iðo
• Hyphenation: li‧bi‧do

Noun

libido f (plural libidos)

1. libido, sex drive