unsex means to deprive of sexual attributes or characteristics. It carries an Arena rating of 1431, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, unsex ranks #376 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #2,536 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #3,452 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #3,752 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words.
unsex is pronounced /ʌnˈsɛks/.
Why “unsex” is a great word
To deprive of sexual attributes or characteristics, especially to sterilize or castrate. Formed within English by derivation from the prefix un- (expressing reversal or deprivation) and the noun sex; first recorded in 1595–1605 and apparently coined by Shakespeare in Macbeth. Unlike “neuter,” a clinical term for surgical removal, or “desexualize,” which strips away allure, “unsex” is a violent, metaphysical stripping-away of the fundamental self. It is Lady Macbeth’s prayer to have the milk of human kindness taken from her breast; the gelding of a once-proud stallion to make it docile; the irrevocable sundering of a soul from its nature—a word for the moment one becomes a stranger to oneself.
verb
- To deprive of sexual attributes or characteristics.e.g.“Lady Macbeth: Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts! unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe full
Of direst cruelty:” — c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount,
- To sterilize (deprive of the ability to procreate); to castrate.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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