Jungfrau, with some masculine modifier, is more typical, as evidenced by the film The 40-Year-Old Virgin, about a 40-year-old male virgin, titled in German, "Jungfrau (40), männlich, sucht…". Unlike English, German also has a specific word for a male virgin Jüngling (Youngling). As Frau means "woman", it suggests a female referent. Jungfrau is the word reserved specifically for sexual inexperience. Jungfrau literally means "young woman", but is not used in this sense anymore. The German word for "virgin" is Jungfrau. Most of the OED1 definitions, however, are similar. These are three of the eighteen definitions of virgin from the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary ( OED1, pages 230–232). Voide & vacand of vices as virgyns it ware. įurther expansion of the word to include virtuous (or naïve) young women, irrespective of religious connection, occurred over about another century, until by about 1400 we find: īy about 1300, the word was expanded to apply also to Mary, the mother of Jesus, hence to sexual virginity explicitly:Ĭonceiud o þe hali gast, born o þe virgine marie. In this, and many later contexts, the reference is specifically Christian, alluding to members of the Ordo Virginum (Order of Virgins), which applies to the consecrated virgins known to have existed since the early church from the writings of the Church Fathers. martirs, and confessors, and uirgines maked faier bode inne to women. The first known use of virgin in English is found in a Middle English manuscript held at Trinity College, Cambridge of about 1200: The Latin word likely arose by analogy with a suit of lexemes based on vireo, meaning "to be green, fresh or flourishing", mostly with botanic reference-in particular, virga meaning "strip of wood". In the latter usage, virgin means uninitiated. In this case, more-mature women can be virgins ( the Virgin Queen), men can be virgins, and potential initiates into many fields can be colloquially termed virgins for example, a skydiving "virgin". As in Latin, the English word is also often used with wider reference, by relaxing the age, gender or sexual criteria. The word virgin comes via Old French virgine from the root form of Latin virgo, genitive virginis, meaning literally "maiden" or " virgin" -a sexually intact young woman or "sexually inexperienced woman". 3.1 Social norms and legal implications.The social implications of virginity still remain in many societies and can have varying effects on an individual's social agency. Although virginity has social implications and had significant legal implications in some societies in the past, it has no legal consequences in most societies today. The concept of virginity usually involves moral or religious issues and can have consequences in terms of social status and in interpersonal relationships. Like chastity, the concept of virginity has traditionally involved sexual abstinence. There are cultural and religious traditions that place special value and significance on this state, predominantly towards unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor, and worth. Heterosexual individuals may or may not consider loss of virginity to occur only through penile-vaginal penetration, while people of other sexual orientations often include oral sex, anal sex, or mutual masturbation in their definitions of losing one's virginity. The term virgin originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern and ethical concepts. Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. White has traditionally been associated with ritual purity, innocence and virginity in Western cultures. Youth by French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau.