onanism means masturbation. It carries an Arena rating of 1294, earned across 99 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, onanism ranks #65 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #857 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #1,063 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,409 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound.
onanism is pronounced /ˈəʊnəˌnɪzəm/.
Why “onanism” is a great word
ONANISM — [Noun] The act of masturbation, or, less commonly, coitus interruptus. From the name Onan, a biblical figure (Genesis 38:9) who "spilled his semen on the ground" to avoid impregnating his brother's widow, combined with the suffix -ism. The term was first attested in English in 1727. Unlike "autoeroticism" (a broader, clinical category devoid of moral weight) or "coitus interruptus" (a precise, mechanical description of withdrawal), onanism is a word freighted with theological guilt and antique shame. It evokes the furtive tremor in the dark, the austere condemnation of a Victorian medical text, and the cold, wasted seed upon the dry earth—a relic from when the body’s solitude was seen not as a private fact but as a theological crime.
Etymology
From Onan + -ism. In the Book of Genesis, Onan, son of Judah, in fulfillment of the laws of levirate marriage was to impregnate his brother Er's widow, Tamar, in order to raise offspring from the union in his brother's name. In order to avoid raising descendants for his late brother, however, Onan "spilled his semen on the ground when he went in to his brother's wife, so that he would not give offspring to his brother" (Genesis 38:9).
noun
- Masturbation.
- Ejaculating outside the vagina during intercourse; (the performing of) coitus interruptus.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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