Lexical Differentiation between Human and Animal Genitalia in the Old English Medicina de Quadrupedibus
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21418852 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bethany Christiansen (0000-0001-5215-5547, The Ohio State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 119 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 241-257 |
| Publication date | 2021-07-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Transactions of the Philological Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0079-1636 • E-ISSN: 1467-968X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-968x.12213 |
| OpenAlex | W3188862045 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 19 |
This paper examines the Old English words for sexual anatomy in the medical text Medicina de quadrupedibus (‘medicines made from quadrupeds’), a close translation of the Latin Liber medicinae ex animalibus . The Anglo‐Saxon translator used different terms for human genitalia and animal genitalia, specifically, the word teors for a human penis and scytel for an animal penis; herþan (and possibly herþbylg ) for human testicles and sceallan for animal testicles; and innoð for human uterus and hrif for animal uterus. On the other hand, rather than showing differentiation, the polite terms gecynd ‘nature; sex; genitals’ and gecyndlim ‘genitals’ translate Latin natura ‘nature; sex; genitals’ for both human and animal genitalia. This apparent exception to the pattern of differentiation results from the semantic congruity of OE gecynd and Latin natura . The principled differentiation of the various terms is probably not lexicalized as such in Old English, but rather represents a specific stylistic choice of the Anglo‐Saxon translator of the Medicina de quadrupedibus to emphasize the difference between humans and animals
Biology · External genitalia · Human animal · Livestock · Male genitalia · Sexual differentiation · Zoology · Anatomy · Ecology · Lexicography and Language Studies · Linguistics and language evolution · Medieval Literature and History
The Latin Sexual Vocabulary
Medical Latin in the Roman Empire
Dun, Oxa and Pliny the Great Physician
A context for the sexualization of monsters in The Wonders of the East
Variant versions of Old English medical remedies and the compilation of Bald's Leechbook
Semiotics of the Old English Charm
The botanical lexicon of the Old English Herbarium
Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England; being a Collection of Documents, for the most part never before printed, illustrating the History of Science in this Country before the Norman Conquest
The etymologies of Isidore of Seville
A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages. A Contribution to the History of Ideas
| Highly cited | No |
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