Catamitism
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The practice of keeping catamites. uncountable
"[T]he Viſcount de Turenne…Remonſtrated to Madam de Buillon, that this Prince having us’d his firſt Wife Ill, whom he had kick’d when with Child, of which ſhe dy’d, ‛twas expoſing her Daughter to the like treatment; that he was addicted to Wine and Women, Qualities not only unworthy a Perſon of his Rank, but allſo to a little Catamitiſm…"
- 2 The essence of being a catamite. rare, uncountable
"Effeminacy…may not have been the quality that gave catamitism its meaning; rather, catamitism…may have been the normative danger that qualified effeminacy as a threat to male heterosexual rule."
Example
More examples"[T]he Viſcount de Turenne…Remonſtrated to Madam de Buillon, that this Prince having us’d his firſt Wife Ill, whom he had kick’d when with Child, of which ſhe dy’d, ‛twas expoſing her Daughter to the like treatment; that he was addicted to Wine and Women, Qualities not only unworthy a Perſon of his Rank, but allſo to a little Catamitiſm…"
Etymology
From catamite + -ism.
More for "catamitism"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.