penis envy
3
9.9
- noun
- /ˈpiːnɪs ˈɛnvi/
- Specialized
:
envidia del pene
- The concept of penis envy plays a significant role in Freudian psychoanalysis.
- penis envy and castration
I just said that and I hesitated and I said penis envy and the whole crowd started laughing hysterically.
- I just said that and I hesitated and I said penis envy and the whole crowd started laughing hysterically.
Examples
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Freudians might say penis envy made us refuse to give up the one we'd created.
Fiction book (1993) -
Does the writer have penis envy, or just a case of wilt?
Blog text (11) -
- Do you think that you have penis envy?
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-You know this thing about penis envy.
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You know who has penis envy?
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But Freud's reference to "penis envy" cannot be said to efface the other motives he mentions.
Academic text (1990) -
Freud contended that mother-daughter conflicts resulted primarily from penis envy in girls, which, in turn, led to intense competition for the affection of the husband/father figure.
Academic text (1993) -
Freud suggested that some women experience penis envy during their psychosexual development.
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Many debates in psychology center around the idea of penis envy and its implications for female identity.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward composition: 'envy' directed toward a 'penis', so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to envy of the male organ. While the psychoanalytic theoretical nuance (Freud's construct about female psychosexual development) is specialized, the basic referential meaning is directly derivable from the constituents.
Etymology
Penis envy was a phrase used by the psychologist Sigmund Freud. He said a young girl might feel envy ('envy' = jealousy) of a boy's penis because it stood for adult power, and that this feeling could shape her hopes and choices later. So the term means a supposed female jealousy about male anatomy or the power it represents.