A friend and I spent a couple of hours poring over dictionaries and thesauri (sp?) while trying to find a word that is the female form of “phallic.” She believes she first encountered the word in ‘The Delta of Venus’ by Anaïs Nin, but hasn’t had any luck finding it again. I didn’t recall any words like that making an impression on my mind, even though I had just read her copy of the book. We debated ‘clitoral,’ ‘clitoric,’ derivations of ‘vagina’ and ‘uterus,’ but she believes it is none of these. Any help in resolving this question is greatly appreciated.
In anatomy, phallus refers to the embryonic precursor of either the penis in the male or the clitoris in the female. The penis and clitoris are homologous. (According to some anatomy texts, the lower vagina in the female is homologous to the prostatic utricle in the male, in case you were wondering; I’m sure you were.)
In Freudian Psychology, phallic refers the genitals of either the male or the female, especially in prepubescent children.
Phallus derives from the Greek word for penis. It can then be argued that the female form of phallic is clitoral (from the Greek word meaning clitoris), but only from a strictly anatomical point of view. “Clitoral symbolism” doesn’t have the same familiar ring as “phallic symbolism.”
I had a similar thought at the time, but the word kept escaping me. I remembered it from something I read about Yoga, or something related. I’ll let her know and see if it rings a bell.
All: Any further input is welcome!
Websters traces vulva, the external female genitals, back to the latin word, vulva, for womb and postulates that it may be akin to volvere, to roll, giving volubilis evolving to voluble, easily rolling.
I think we should let the master guide us. No, not Cecil. Shakespeare.
I vote for “country.”
HAMLET Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
[Lying down at OPHELIA’s feet]
OPHELIA No, my lord.
HAMLET I mean, my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA Ay, my lord.
HAMLET Do you think I meant country matters?
This is also what I’ve heard. I will give you my source, for what it’s worth. From what may be the best parody I have ever seen:
(a whole bunch of song, sung by Xena, Warrior Princess, to the tune of Modern Major General)
"My sword is rather phallic, though my chakram’s rather yonical,
To find out what that means you’ll have to study Indo-Aryan,
I am the very model of a Heroine Barbarian!
(“She is the very model of a Heroine Barbarian.”)
I can’t remember who wrote this; I believe it was a Harvard student. Harvard has just justified itself to me.
I think that “yonnic” would be more the female equivalent of “lingic” (is there such a word?) from “lingam”. It seems to me that one ought to keep the languages consistent, so since “phallic” comes from the Greek for “penis”, what we need is the Greek word for “vagina” or “vulva”. By the way, Iolanthe, I almost fell out of my chair when I read that song. Do you have a link to the full lyrics?
Hindi: Yonic would work only if you accept lingamic (or lingal) as the male counterpart. (The stylized female and male representations of Shiva.) Yonic probably has more of a linguistical currency for ‘the female form’ because there are many yonic statues in Hindu culture representing Yoni.
Latin: Vulval (or vulvar) is a perfectly acceptable English word for what you want. Phallos is a Late Latin word borrowed from the Greek, and so phallic and vulval make a good Latinate team. Although, the more proper Latinate word for the male symbol would be penile.
Greek: Though clitoris comes from the Greek, it’s English use for ‘the man in the boat’ doesn’t imply the stylized shape you’re looking for. The Greek for vagina or womb is kolpos, and so, the English equivalent would be a coined term ‘colpal’ to go along with phallic.