lapidable

English

Etymology

From Latin lapis (“stone”). The sense "nubile" was an intellectual pun on the use of English stone to mean "testicle", potentially also influenced by lap (“female pudenda”).

Adjective

lapidable (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Nubile, mature for sexual intercourse (of a woman). [17th century]
   • 1614, Richard Cocks, letter to Richard Williams, quoted in 1991, Anthony Farrington, The English Factory in Japan 1613-1623, London: The British Library, page 140:

     I bought a wench yisterday, cost me 3 taies, for w’ch she must serve 5 yeares [...] She is but 12 yeares ould, over small yet for trade, but yow wold littell thynke that I have another forthcominge that is mor lapedable, yet it is true, & I think a gentelwoman of your accoyntance.

   • 1660, anonymous author, The Practical Part of Love: Extracted out of the Extravagant and Lascivious Life of a Fair but Subtle Female, London:

     [T]he exspected long looked for houre [...] was now come; for that she was lapidable and ripe for man, and that all the time thenceforth she should continue a forst chastity, would be little or no cost, except what was expended in oatmeal or loam: Ventricia cheared up her self, well contented with so easie and beneficial a cure.

   • 1744, James Carson, Jemmy Carson’s collections: being a revival of his own labours and lucubrations, for thirty years past; with pieces upon different subjects, by several hands, Dublin:

     Yet do thou cherish thy Partner, whilst her innocent Eyes are gazing on the Green Garment, that covereth the Surface of her Illapidable Virginity, ruminating upon the Departure of her nearest and dearest Friend [...] In that Day, thee wilt see with the Eye of Flesh; but if thee pursues it farther, to know whether she be Lapidable, or not, thee art certainly a Tyrant: For the Hammer of thy Loins, will at length beat down the Fortress of her Porto Bello; and the Pillars of her Tabernace will be spread abroad, until thee hast plundered the City, and taken the Precious Stones away.

References

• Kaislaniemi, Samuli (2011), "Early East India Company merchants and a rare word for sex" in Olga Timofeeva, and Tanja Säily (eds), Words in Dictionaries and History: Essays in Honour of R.W. McConchie, John Benjamins Publishing Company

French

Adjective

lapidable (plural lapidables)

1. accursed

   Je cherche réfuge contre les embûches de Satan le lapidable.

   I seek refuge from Satan the accursed.

Usage notes

Used primarily in Quran translations to translate the word رجيم (“stoned, accursed”).

Further reading

• “lapidable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.