nymphomania

noun

nym·​pho·​ma·​nia ˌnim(p)-fə-ˈmā-nē-ə 

-nyə

: excessive sexual desire by a female

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, from nymphae "labia minora" (plural of Latin nympha "nymph of mythology," borrowed from Greek nýmphē "bride, young woman, nymph of mythology," [in medical writers of the early centuries A.D.] "clitoris") + -o- -o- + -mania -mania — more at nymph

Note: The originator of Latin nymphomania is unknown, though discussions of this supposed ailment, more frequently called furor uterinus (literally, "frenzy of the uterus"), are common in medical literature of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The word was certainly in circulation by 1627, when it was used by François Ranchin (1560-1641), French physician and chancellor of the University of Montpellier, in Tractatus de morbis virginum ("Treatise on the infirmities of virgins") included in his Opuscula medica (Lyon, 1627). Ranchin's analysis is under the heading "De furore uterino Virgineo, seu nymphomania" ("Concerning the uterine disturbance of virgins, or nymphomania").

First Known Use

1702, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

nymphomania

noun

nym·​pho·​ma·​nia ˌnim(p)-fə-ˈmā-nē-ə, -nyə 

: excessive sexual desire by a female compare satyriasis