catamite

[ kat-uh-mahyt ]

noun

1. a boy or youth who is in a sexual relationship with a man.

catamite

/ ˈkætəˌmaɪt /

noun

1. a boy kept for homosexual purposes

Word History and Origins

Origin of catamite¹

1585–95; < Latin Catamītus < Etruscan Catmite < Greek Ganymḗdēs Ganymede

Word History and Origins

Origin of catamite¹

C16: from Latin Catamītus, variant of Ganymēdēs Ganymede ¹

Example Sentences

Johnson was fired from his first job, at the Times of London, for making up a quote about Edward II’s catamite lover and attributing it to his godfather, the Oxford historian Colin Lucas.

From Washington Post

Nehlen also recounted a Twitter fight between himself and John Podhoretz, and he laughed at how the editor of Commentary had called him a “catamite,” a word he had to look up in the dictionary.

From Washington Post

“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.”

From Nature

He quoted an Oxford historian, Colin Lucas, giving the colourful detail that the monarch "enjoyed a reign of dissolution with his catamite, Piers Gaveston" at the palace.

From The Guardian

"It was the afternoon of my 81st birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."

From The Guardian