Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A boy who has a sexual relationship with a man.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A boy kept for unnatural purposes.
Wiktionary
- n. The junior partner in a paederastic relationship.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A boy kept for unnatural purposes.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a boy who submits to a sexual relationship with a man
Etymologies
- 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)
- Latin catamītus, from Catamītus, Ganymede, from Etruscan Catmite, from Greek Ganumēdēs. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A catamite is a boy ... a prostitute boy lover. ”
“Ever since I had to look up the word 'catamite' when I read that famous first line of Earthly Powers in 1981," he says, "I have been a Burgess fan.”
“Not to be confused with "catamite", which is a small boy kept for unnatural purposes.”
“Maybe showing Baron Harkonon sodomizing a ballgagged catamite?”
“Eng. for “young hobo,” one who is new on the road and usually in the company of an older tramp, with catamite connotations.”
“People with the education to have the word “catamite” in their vocabulary and still write comments like this one make me sick.”
“A guy whose catamite boyfriend runs a homosexual brothel out of their house.”
“We don't take kindly to catamite-poaching in this neck of Syracuse.”
“Archimedes: But I told you, I wasn't with my catamite”
“What Roger Ailes catamite wrote this script for the bubble-headed Fox blonde?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘catamite’.
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Davenport
words looked up recently from reading Guy Davenport
flenite, sampan, provender, comitatus, cycladic, surd, scialytic, lignite, plangencies, fugal, zamindary, macaque and 112 more...
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phrontistery - c
from phrontistery.info
czardas, cytometer, cytology, cytheromania, cystoscope, cystolith, cyrenaic, cypseline, cyprinoid, cyphonism, cynophobia, cytogenesis and 1298 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 516 more...
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tatterdemalion's list
chrysalis, colloquy, peroration, syncretism, dickering, gamelan, dictatress, adventurism, untenable, presumption of fa..., lovelorn, bawdily and 47 more...
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the lascivious
orgiastic, nymph, breathless, writhe, calypso, Medusa, virago, sapphic, catamite, bisou, buss, succubus and 48 more...
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Disturbing definitions from the Centu...
Although the Century Dictionary has some exquisite definitions which exhibit attention to scientific detail and respect for terms, ideas, and technology that might otherwise be forgotten, this wind...
cockshy, homosexuality, niggard, sodomy, Creole, promiscuity, savage, ass, hamfatter, ill-gendered, madras, hydrencephalocele and 22 more...
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cata-, cat-, kata-
down(ward), wrongly or badly, completely, against
catadromous, catastrophe, katabatic, catachresis, cataclysm, catapult, catatonic, catatonia, catawampus, catalyst, catabolic, catabolism and 24 more...
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Chennessy's Words
philistine, messianic, dyad, cult, bourgeois, blot, ploy, polyglot, lingua franca, cumbersome, lumber, petit-bourgeois and 446 more...
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I, Claudius
Words taken from I, Claudius by Robert Graves.
evocation, aureus, sestertii, denarii, assegai, pilum, framea, sibyl, propitiatory, duenna, tyrannicide, maggoty and 136 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1401 more...
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spicolli's Words
terrapin, ravenous, fuck, sepulchral, garlic, suss, queer, curmudgeon, foodie, intricate, omphalos, subversion and 534 more...
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Miscellany, pt. c
chokedamp, clitter, circumbendibus, catmint, cacoëpy, co-feoffee, caribou, conturbation, chalicothere, calamus, cochineal, cincture and 168 more...
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Let's talk about sex
A collection of words about doing the nasty.
prurient, odalisque, soubrette, gravid, lochia, xenogamy, syngamy, zygote, pintle, hexaploid, seminal, hetaera and 232 more...
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The Collection
A somewhat discriminatory list of words and phrases collected for their euphonic or arcane appeal, interesting etymology, or concise definition of an otherwise unnamed phenomenon or concept.
ziggurat, neophilia, sucker punch, soporific, epoch, tundra, fiat, idiotproof, miscellany, metaphysics, cryptozoology, dysphoria and 850 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for catamite.
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