eunuch
- 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
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.
Historical Examples of eunuch
Ere the queen could reply, a eunuch entered, and whispered Boabdil.
Leila, CompleteEdward Bulwer-Lytton
His voice was high pitched and his whole manner suggested that of a eunuch.
The Sexual QuestionAugust Forel
Orleans himself may desire it, but the man is a eunuch in crime; he would, but he can't.
ScaramoucheRafael Sabatini
(b) His justification or raison d'tre explanation of the eunuch system.
CyropaediaXenophon
The faithfulness of the eunuch has its parallel in that of the old negro slave.
CyropaediaXenophon
eunuch
- 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
Word Origin and History for eunuch
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
(yōō′nək)- A man or boy whose testes have been removed or have never developed.