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  1. catamite love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A boy who has a sexual relationship with a man.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A boy kept for unnatural purposes.

Wiktionary

  1. n. The junior partner in a paederastic relationship.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A boy kept for unnatural purposes.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a boy who submits to a sexual relationship with a man

Etymologies

  1. First attested in English in 1593: from Latin Catamītus, from Etruscan Catmite, from Ancient Greek Γανυμήδης (Ganumḗdēs, "Ganymede"); in Greek mythology, an attractive Trojan boy abducted to Mount Ólympos by the god Zeus to become his cupbearer and, later, his lover. (Wiktionary)
  2. Latin catamītus, from Catamītus, Ganymede, from Etruscan Catmite, from Greek Ganumēdēs. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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Lists

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Comments

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  • Prolagus Shevek's comment still makes me laugh out loud, as my roommate just found out. Dec 2, 2012

  • jaime_d From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport Jan 19, 2010

  • noirling Came across it in Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" Nov 8, 2009

  • madmouth the etymology lends a bizarre significance to The Ganymede Club for gentlemen's personal gentlemen Oct 28, 2009

  • eeek I was reading Mary Stewart's Merlin series and had to look up catamite. Now I have yet another word in my insult arsenal. Maybe cornhobble could also mean to slap a person in the fact with a word they don't know?
    Mar 29, 2009

  • garyth123 I came across it in Anthony Burgess' novel Earthly Powers. Feb 8, 2009

  • hedgerows 'The word catamite is derived from the Latin catamitus, itself borrowed from the Etruscan catmite, a corruption of the Greek Ganymedes, the boy who was seduced by Zeus and became his beloved and cup-bearer in Greek mythology'. -- Wikipedia

    I encountered this word in the Libertine play, 'The Farce of Sodom, or, the Quintessence of Debauchery'. In the list of 'dramatis personae', the character of Pockenello is described as 'Pimp, Catamite, and the King's Favourite'. Feb 8, 2009

  • obikitty I have a fun story for this word: my friend Kevin and I always used to IM insults at each other whenever we were online at the same time. I'd recently read a book where this word popped up (something nautical, I think, not that it matters) and so I sent it his way. He was, shocking as it may seem, very angry. He was a big egotistical know-it-all though, so it was probably more from the fact that he had to look it up, than the insult itself. Well, maybe it was a tie... Oct 17, 2008

  • reesetee Second definition: WeirdNet! Jul 28, 2008

  • shevek Sounds like this is right up there with marmite. Jul 20, 2008

  • brtom I asked him what he thought of the charge of pederasty brought against the bard. He lifted his hands and said: All we can say is that life ran very high in those days. Lovely!

    Catamite.

    -- The sense of beauty leads us astray, said beautifulinsadness Best to ugling Eglinton.

    Joyce, Ulysses, 9 Jan 5, 2007

  • roetzel Ogged was a prodigious catamite. Dec 9, 2006

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‘catamite’ has been looked up 4560 times, loved by 5 people, added to 65 lists, commented on 12 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.