Forms: [4 eunuchus], 5 enuke, 6–7 eunuche, 6– eunuch. [ad. L. eunūch-us, a. Gr. εὐνοῦχος, f. εὐνή bed + -οχ- ablaut-stem of ἔχειν to keep; the literal sense is thus a bedchamber guard or attendant.]
1. A castrated person of the male sex; also, such a person employed as a harem attendant, or in Oriental courts and under the Roman emperors, charged with important affairs of state.
c. 1430. Lydg., Bochas, III. xxv. 96 a. Whan the Enukes to ye King her brought She was accepted.
1589. Nashe, Anat. Absurd., B ij a–b. Speaking … of whoredome, as though they had beene Eunuches from theyr cradle.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, II. iii. 94. And they were sons of mine, I’de haue them whip’d, or I would send them to’th Turke to make Eunuches of.
1611. Bible, Matt. xix. 12. For there are some Eunuches, which were so borne from their mothers wombe.
a. 1616. Beaumont, Poems, The Glance. Throw Those flakes upon the eunuch’s colder snow.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. xxi. 209. But they who are born Eunuchs deserve no such great commendation for their chastity.
1701. W. Wotton, Hist. Rome, i. 462. He had a mortal Aversion to Eunuchs, that third Species of Mankind, as he pleasantly used to call them.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., II. 51. The private apartments of the palace were governed by a favourite eunuch.
1807. Robinson, Archæol. Græca, V. xiii. 472. The first that made eunuchs was Semiramis.
1867. Lady Herbert, Cradle L., viii. 224. Achill Aga offered to show the ladies his harem; and a black eunuch was summoned to escort them.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, lxiii. 34/50. Thither hie the votaress eunuchs with an emulous alacrity.
¶ In the LXX. and the Vulgate the Gr. εὐνοῦχος, L. eunūchus, following the corresponding Heb. sārīs, sometimes designate palace officials who were not ‘eunuchs,’ e.g., Potiphar (Gen. xxxix. 1, where A. V. has ‘officer’). Hence the Eng. word has occas. been similarly used in discussions of passages in which the meaning of the word is disputed.
[1387. Trevisa, Higdon (Rolls), II. 305. Putyphar þat was eunuchus … Eunuchus is he þat is i-gilded, and suche were somtyme i-made wardeynes of ladyes in Egipt.]
1557. N. T. (Genev.), Acts viii. 27, note. Noble men were called Eunuches, although they were not gelded.
b. A male singer, castrated in boyhood, so as to retain an alto or soprano voice. Cf. CASTRATO.
1732. Ld. Lansdowne, Charac. Wycherly, Wks. 1736, II. 112. Our modern writers … like Eunuchs … sacrifice their Manhood for a Voice, and reduce Poetry, like Echo to be nothing but Sound.
1738. Johnson, London, 59. Let such … With warbling eunuchs fill a licenc’d stage.
1761. Churchill, Rosciad, Poems (1763), I. 35. Never shall a truly British Age Bear a vile race of Eunuchs on the Stage.
c. Used as adj.: Emasculated. rare–1.
1817. Godwin, Mandeville, III. 96. He had a mind wholly eunuch and ungenerative in matters of literature and taste.
2. attrib. and Comb. Also fig.
1666. Dryden, Ann. Mirab., xl. That eunuch guardian of rich Holland’s trade, Who envies us what he wants power to enjoy.
1739. P. Whitehead, Manners, 8. What sing-song Riot, and what Eunuch-squawling.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, II. III. vi. 58. Bright moon!… Sultana of the soul! the Passions are thy eunuch slaves.
1849–50. Alison, Hist. Europe, VIII. l. § 37. 157. Liberty … expired amidst eunuch servility and Eastern adulation.
