catamite
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈkætəˌmaɪt/
- Slur
- It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me.
- a Scottish catamite
Examples
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I called you a Scottish catamite, Grant.
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And that's, I think of catamites in Greek culture.
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This is between me and the Scottish catamite.
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Intelligence had said the son was Arafat's catamite, but I don't know.
Fiction book (1994) -
The catamites of Greece.
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I told her as we bobbed among quiet waves about my husband's cousin, a former sybarite and catamite, who in middle age and failing health had been happy, even grateful, to rejoin what members of the family were ready to take him in.
Fiction book (1991) -
In ancient Greece, young boys were often seen as catamites in relationships with older men, a common practice of the time.
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The term catamite refers to a young male involved in a sexual relationship with an older man, particularly in historical contexts.
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He studied the role of catamites in classical literature as a significant aspect of same-sex relationships in ancient societies.
Surface Forms
Etymology
Catamite comes from an old Greek name for Ganymede, the beautiful boy taken by the god Zeus. Because Ganymede was said to be loved by an older man, catamite came to mean 'a boy or young man in a sexual relationship with an older man' in stories and history.