eunuchとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From 中期英語 eunuk, from Middle French eunuque, from Latin eunūchus, from Ancient Greek εὐνοῦχος (eunoûkhos), from εὐνή (eunḗ, “bed”) + ἔχω (ékhō, “I have, keep”). Originally probably used to refer to a bed chamber attendant.

発音

• enPR: yo͞oʹnək, IPA: /ˈjuː.nək/
• ハイフネーション: eu‧nuch

名詞

eunuch (plural eunuchs)

1. A castrated human male.
   • 1922, Michael Arlen, “2/1/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days‎:

     Semiramis was the first woman to invent eunuchs and women have had sympathy for them ever since; […] and women can tell them what they can't tell other men.

2. Such a man employed as harem guard or in certain (mainly Eastern) monarchies (e.g. late Roman and Chinese Empires) as court or state officials.
   • c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:

     He ſhall be made a chaſte and luſtleſſe Eunuch,
     And in my Sarell tend my Concubines

   • 1849, Austen Henry Layard, chapter III, in Nineveh and Its Remains: with an account of a visit to the Chaldean Christians of Kurdistan:

     [describing a bas-relief] An eunuch holds a fly-flapper or fan over the head of the king, who appears to be conversing or performing some ceremony with a figure standing in front of him; probably his vizir or minister.

3. (in translations of ancient texts) A man who is not inclined to marry and procreate.
4. (figurative) One that is ineffectual.
   • 1976 December 11, Ronnie Allen, “No Political Eunuch”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 24, page 4:

     Mr. Peterson really reaches for a low one when he says, "They (gays) should never commit themselves to any broader ideological movement." I am, paradoxically, a Christian, a Maxist, a Gay, and a Human Being. To be gay one should not be a political eunuch.

使用する際の注意点

• While the most common form is a eunuch, the form an eunuch (presumably with an appropriate pronunciation) is occasionally seen.

同意語

• gelding

派生語

動詞

eunuch (third-person singular simple present eunuchs, present participle eunuching, simple past and past participle eunuched)

1. (transitive, dated) To castrate.
2. (figurative, transitive, dated) To render ineffectual.

参考