frigidity

[ fri-jid-i-tee ]

noun

1. the state or condition of being frigid.
2. (in women) inhibition, not caused by a physical disorder or medication, of sexual excitement during sexual activity.

Other Words From

• nonfri·gidi·ty noun
• unfri·gidi·ty noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of frigidity¹

1400–50; late Middle English frigidite coldness (< Middle French fregidité ) < Late Latin frīgiditās; frigid, -ity

Example Sentences

"The help of such specialists is necessary if a person wants to recover from frigidity, impotence, or such violations of sexual behaviour as fetishism, masochism and sadism," the official newspaper of Russia's parliament said.

From Reuters

She set up a private practice and specialized in treating women afflicted with what she would call one of the “gravest problems of our time”: sexual frigidity.

From Scientific American

But despite having arrived at the inner suburbs of the coming season, Friday offered few clues to the days of frost and frigidity that experience and meteorology have located in our not-far-off future.

From Washington Post

In front of these drawings at the Met, I fell in love with David again: with his intensity and his frigidity; with how, in his shadow, today’s “political” art looks as benign as patty-cake.

From New York Times

The same phenomenon may be causing abnormal spells of extreme heat and blasts of polar frigidity, because the jet stream winds that normally break up weather patterns and drive storm systems are weaker.

From Washington Post