Dictionary

maidenhead en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree English maiden Proto-Indo-European *keyt-der. Proto-Germanic *haiduzder. Proto-West Germanic *-haiduder. Old English -hād Middle English -hed, -hede English -head English maidenhead From maiden + -head.

Meanings

1. (countable, literally) The hymen.
   • Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads; take it in what sense thou wilt. c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
2. (metonymically, uncountable) Virginity.
   • […] a young virgin makes an even trade of her maidenhead for a hat that she desires. She negotiates with the haberdasher, who originally stipulated for her maidenhead plus a crown […] 2006, C. Harol, Enlightened Virginity in Eighteenth-Century Literature, Springer, →ISBN, page 87:
   • “[…] He said that Katheryn told him he should have her maidenhead, though it be painful to her. I told him to be gone with his empty promises of marriage. But I doubt not that Mr. Mannox has known her intimately.” 2004, Margaret Doner, Merlin's Handbook for Seekers and Starseeds, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 94:
   • My lord,[…]/ I brought you nothing else it may be said / But faith and nakedness and maidenhead. 1951, Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by Nevill Coghill, The Canterbury Tales: Translated into Modern English (Penguin Classics), Penguin Books, published 1977, page 363:
   • So the reference to the plucking of the ginger flower is again an indirect allusion to the taking of the girl's maidenhead . 1995, Ruth H. Finnegan, Margaret Orbell, Reader in Maori Head of Department of Maori Margaret Orbell, South Pacific Oral Traditions, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 70:
   • Put in but little Silver or Gold, for if you do, you quite spoil the Compoſition ; but inſtead thereof, add of Tradeſmens Bills for Cloaths, to the Value of 100 l. [¶] Laſtly, Take away the Girl's Maidenhead, and then the Compoſition is fit for Uſe. 1713, Sir John Willes, The Speech that was Intended to Have Been Spoken by the Terræ-Filius: In the Theatre at O----d, July 13, 1713, Had Not His Mouth Been Stopp'd by the V. Ch------r:
   • The gender reversals that pervade this play continue mischievously in the man's maidenhead being the undisclosed secret. 2004, Yu Jin Ko, Mutability and Division on Shakespeare's Stage, page 70:
   • The penis imagery becomes apparent: the nails are 'blunt' and 'large', designed to push through the fair skin in body parts (feet, hands) that had earlier been described in erotically-charged language. As if losing his maidenhead, Christ's body 'bursts' when entered, bringing forth a gush of blood that mars his white (womanly) skin. 2009, The Milieu and Context of the Wooing Group, page 141:
   • Almost immediately afterwards, Scanlan discovered that the marriage was legal; Ellie was his wife. He began to feel that he had paid an exceptionally high price for his maidenhead. 2015, Colin Wilson, A Casebook of Murder:
   • She prayed to Pallas, and by her help escaped from him in the form of a crow, rejoicing more to keep her maidenhead white under the blackness of the feathers than to lose it and be adorned with the fairest pearls. 1900, John Gower, The English Works of John Gower:
   • Gallants, a bashful poet bids me say, He's come to lose his maidenhead to-day. Be not too fierce; for he's but green of age, And ne'er, till now, debauch'd upon the stage. 1760, John Dryden, The Miscellaneous Works: Containing All His Original Poems, Tales, and Translations, page 367:

Forms

Relateds

maidenliness

Synonyms

maidhood · maidenhood

Translations (24)

pt hímen (hymen) · de Jungfräulichkeit (virginity) · fi immenkalvo (hymen) · ota بكر (hymen) · nl maagdenvlies (hymen) · pl hymen (hymen) · ru де́вственная пле́ва (hymen) · ru де́вственность (virginity) · mk девственост (virginity) · fi neitsyys (virginity) · ota بكارت (hymen) · cs panenská blána (hymen) · ga maighdeanas (virginity) · bg девственост (virginity) · tr kızlık (virginity) · ota بكر (virginity) · ru гиме́н (hymen) · pl błona dziewicza (hymen) · ota بكارت (virginity) · cs panenství (virginity) · bg девствена ципа (hymen) · fr virginité (virginity) · nl maagdelijkheid (virginity) · pl dziewictwo (virginity)