vagina dentatan.
/vəˌdʒʌɪnə dɛnˈteɪtə/, /vəˌdʒʌɪnə dɛnˈtɑːtə/, U.S. /vəˌdʒaɪnə dɛnˈtɑdə/, /vəˌdʒaɪnə dɛnˈteɪdə/ (The motif of) a vagina equipped with teeth.The motif occurs in various folk tales and myths from different cultures. It is generally interpreted as a symbol of the fear of injury, amputation, or emasculation felt by the male partner in relation to heterosexual intercourse, and is sometimes viewed as a warning against promiscuity and rape.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > theory of psychoanalysis > libido > sublimation of libido > [noun] > repression > sexual
sexual repression1885
vagina dentata1908
castration-complex1914
1908 R. H. Lowie in Jrnl. Amer. Folk-lore 21 108 Its variants in North America are innumerable; the most important being the crushing entrance to heaven, snapping doors,..and the vagina dentata.
1926 J. I. Suttie tr. S. Ferenczi Further Contrib. Psycho-anal. xxxii. 279 Anxiety in regard to the mother's vagina (vagina dentata = birth anxiety).
1932 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 62 219 The neurotic dread of sexual intercourse, which is symbolized in the same manner as vagina dentata by many people in many countries.
1958 W. R. Trask tr. M. Eliade Birth & Rebirth iii. 51 The return [to the womb] implies the risk of being torn to pieces in the monster's jaws (or in the vagina dentata of Mother Earth).
1983 Observer 5 June 32/3 The heroes fight against being fed into the all-consuming mouth..of a nightmarish gigantic vagina dentata.
2013 G. Kaplan Poison Pill lviii. 271 Oh and Percy? What I said about my vagina dentata? No teeth, luv, honest. See you at eight, then.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2019; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
<
n.1908