Editing Eunuch (section)

==Etymology==
''Eunuch'' comes from the [[Ancient Greek]] word {{lang|grc|εὐνοῦχος}}<ref>{{LSJ|eu)nou{{=}}xos|εὐνοῦχος|ref}}.</ref> ({{transliteration|grc|eunoûkhos}}), first attested in a fragment of [[Hipponax]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Miller|first=Margaret|title=Athens and Persia in the Fifth Century BC: A Study in Cultural Receptivity|year=1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge |isbn=0-521-49598-9|page=213}}</ref> the 6th century BCE comic poet and prolific inventor of compound words.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hawkins |first=Shane |title=Studies in the Language of Hipponax |date=2013 |publisher=Hempen Verlag |location=Bremen |pages=111–120}}</ref> The acerbic poet describes a particular lover of fine food having "consumed his estate dining lavishly and at leisure every day on tuna and garlic-honey cheese paté like a [[Lampsacus|Lampsacene]] {{transliteration|grc|eunoukhos.}}"<ref>{{cite book |last=West |first=M.L., ed. and trans. |title=Greek Lyric Poetry |date=1993 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |page=117}}</ref>

The earliest surviving etymology of the word is from [[late antiquity]]. The 5th century (CE) ''Etymologicon'' by [[Orion of Thebes]] offers two alternative origins for the word eunuch: first, {{transliteration|grc|to tēn eunēn ekhein}}, "guarding the bed", a derivation inferred from eunuchs' established role at the time as [[cubicularius|"bedchamber attendants"]] in the imperial palace, and second, {{transliteration|grc|to eu tou nou ekhein}}, "being good with respect to the mind", which Orion explains based on their "being deprived of intercourse ({{transliteration|grc|esterēmenou tou misgesthai}}), the things that the ancients used to call irrational ({{transliteration|grc|anoēta}}, literally: 'mindless')".<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Sturz |editor-first=Friedrich Wilhelm |title=Orionis Thebani Etymologicon |date=1820 |publisher=Weigel |location=Leipzig |page=58}}</ref> Orion's second option reflects well-established idioms in Ancient Greek, as shown by entries for {{Translation|grc|noos}}, {{transliteration|grc|eunoos}} and {{transliteration|grc|ekhein}} in [[Liddell and Scott]]'s Greek-English Lexicon, while the first option is not listed as an idiom under {{transliteration|grc|eunē}} in that standard reference work.<ref>{{cite book |last=Liddell |first=H.G. and R. Scott |title=Greek-English Lexicon |date=1883 |publisher=Harper & Brothers |location=New York |pages=607–608, 1009}}</ref> However, the first option was cited by the late 9th century Byzantine emperor [[Leo VI the Wise|Leo VI]] in his New Constitution 98 banning the marriage of eunuchs, in which he noted eunuchs' reputation as trustworthy guardians of the marriage bed ({{transliteration|grc|eunē}}) and claimed that the very word eunuch attested to this kind of employment.<ref>{{cite book |last=Noailles |first=P., and A. Dain |title=Les Nouvelles de Leon VI le Sage |year=1944 |location=Paris |page=327}}</ref> The emperor also goes further than Orion by attributing eunuchs' lack of male–female intercourse specifically to castration, which he said was performed with the intention "that they will no longer do the things that males do, or at least to extinguish whatever has to do with desire for the female sex".<ref>{{cite book |last=Noailles |first=P., and A. Dain |title=Les Nouvelles de Leon VI le Sage |year=1944 |location=Paris |page=325}}</ref> The 11th century Byzantine monk [[Nikon of the Black Mountain]], opting instead for Orion's second alternative, stated that the word came from {{transliteration|grc|eunoein}} ({{transliteration|grc|eu}} "good" + {{transliteration|grc|nous}} "mind"), thus meaning "to be well-minded, well-inclined, well-disposed or favorable", but unlike Orion he argued that this was due to the trust that certain jealous and suspicious foreign rulers placed in the loyalty of their eunuchized servants.<ref>{{cite book |last=Benesevic |first=V.N. |title=Taktikon Nikona Cernogorca |year=1917 |location=St. Petersburg |page=99}}</ref> [[Theophylact of Ohrid]] in a dialogue ''In Defence of Eunuchs'' also stated that the origin of the word was from ''eupnoeic'' and ''ekhein'', "to have, hold", since they were always "well-disposed" toward the master who "held" or owned them.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gautier |first=Paul, ed. and tr. |title=Théophylacte d'Achrida: Discours, Traités, Poésies |year=1980 |publisher=Association de Recherches Byzantines |location=Thessaloniki |pages=308–309}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ringrose |first=Kathryn M. |title=The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social Construction of Gender in Byzantium |year=2003 |publisher=University of Chicago |location=Chicago |isbn=0-226-72015-2 |pages=16, 39}}</ref> The 12th century ''[[Etymologicum Magnum]]'' (s.v. ''eunoukhos'') essentially repeats the entry from Orion, but stands by the first option, while attributing the second option to what "some say". In the late 12th century, [[Eustathius of Thessalonica]] (''Commentaries on Homer'' 1256.30, 1643.16) offered an original derivation of the word from ''eunis'' + ''okheuein'', "deprived of mating".

In translations of the Bible into modern European languages, such as the [[Luther Bible]] or the [[King James Bible]], the word ''eunuchs'' as found in the [[Latin Vulgate]] is usually rendered as an officer, official or chamberlain, consistent with the idea that the original meaning of eunuch was bed-keeper (Orion's first option). Modern religious scholars have been disinclined to assume that the courts of Israel and Judah included castrated men,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kittel |first1=Gerhard |first2=Gerhard |last2=Friedrich |editor-first=Geoffrey |editor-last=Bromiley |title=Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume |date=1985 |publisher=William B. Eerdmans |location=Grand Rapids, MI |page=277}}</ref> even though the [[Septuagint|original translation of the Bible into Greek]] used the word ''eunoukhos''.

The early 17th-century scholar and theologian [[Gerardus Vossius]] therefore explains that the word originally designated an office, and he affirms the view that it was derived from ''eunē'' and ''ekhein'' (i.e. "bed-keeper").<ref>{{cite book |last=Vossius |first=Gerardus |title=Etymologicon Linguae Latinae |date=1662 |publisher=Lodewijk and Daniel Elsevier |location=Amsterdam |page=198}}</ref> He says the word came to be applied to castrated men in general because such men were the usual holders of that office. Still, Vossius notes the alternative etymologies offered by Eustathius ("deprived of mating") and others ("having the mind in a good state"), calling these analyses "quite subtle". Then, after having previously declared that eunuch designated an office (i.e., not a personal characteristic), Vossius ultimately sums up his argument in a different way, saying that the word "originally signified continent men" to whom the care of women was entrusted, and later came to refer to castration because "among foreigners" that role was performed "by those with mutilated bodies".

Modern etymologists have followed Orion's first option.<ref name="Maass 1925 437">{{cite journal |last=Maass |first=Ernst |title=Eunouchos und Verwandtes |journal=Rheinisches Museum |year=1925 |volume=74 |page=437}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Chantraine |first=Pierre |title=Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque – Histoire des mots, Vol. 2, E-K |year=1970 |publisher=Éditions Klincksieck |location=Paris |pages=385–386}}</ref> In an influential 1925 essay on the word eunuch and related terms, [[Ernst Maass]] suggested that Eustathius's derivation "can or must be laid to rest", and he affirmed the derivation from ''eunē'' and ''ekhein'' ("guardian of the bed"),<ref name="Maass 1925 437"/> without mentioning the other derivation from ''eunoos'' and ''ekhein'' ("having a well-disposed state of mind").

In Latin, the words ''[[wikt:eunuchus|eunuchus]]'',<ref>{{L&S|eunuchus|ref}}</ref> ''[[wikt:spado#Latin|spado]]'' (Greek: {{lang|grc|σπάδων}} ''spadon''),<ref>{{L&S|spado|ref}}</ref><ref>{{LSJ|spa/dwn1|σπάδων|shortref}}.</ref> and ''[[wikt:castratus|castratus]]'' were used to denote eunuchs.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wordes.exe?eunuch |title=Words |publisher=Archives.nd.edu |access-date=24 April 2014 |archive-date=23 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923221940/http://www.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wordes.exe?eunuch |url-status=dead }}</ref>