virginity

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English virginite, from Old French virginite, from Latin virginitas. Equivalent to virgin +‎ -ity. Displaced native Old English mæġeþhād, originally meaning “girlhood.”

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /və(ɹ)ˈd͡ʒɪnɪti/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪnɪti

Noun[edit]

virginity (countable and uncountable, plural virginities)

  1. The state or characteristic of being a virgin.
    Synonyms: maidenhood, maidenhead, (female) maidhood, (euphemistic, general) V card, (informal) cherry
    to lose one's virginity
    • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 128:
      She had a lot of dark hair pinned untidily back from a small well-formed brow, and her tilted nose and large embarrassed eyes had survived intact from the mistrusts and agitations of a schoolgirl, which maturity had striven to defeat by lengthening her chin and tightening her lips, while giving her skin the faintly furred matt surface of pickled virginity.

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