English

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Etymology

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First use appears c. 1535, from fore- +‎ skin, a loose calque of Latin praeputium. Compare German Vorhaut etc.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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foreskin (plural foreskins)

  1. (anatomy) The nerve-dense, retractable fold of skin which covers and protects the head of the penis in humans and some other mammals.
    Synonym: penile foreskin
    The female clitoral hood is homologous with the foreskin.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, [] (King James Version), London: [] Robert Barker, [], →OCLC, Genesis 17:14:
      And the vncircumcised man-child, whose flesh of his foreskinne is not circumcised, that soule shall be cut off from his people: hee hath broken my couenant.
    • 1990, Robert D. Martin, Primate Origins and Evolution: A Phylogenetic Reconstruction, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, →ISBN:
      In primates, the foreskin is present in the genitalia of both sexes and likely has been present for millions of years of evolution.
    • 2010, The Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Circumcision of infant males:
      the foreskin is a primary sensory part of the penis, containing some of the most sensitive areas of the penis
  2. (anatomy) Ellipsis of clitoral foreskin.
    Synonym: clitoral hood

Synonyms

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Translations

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Verb

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foreskin (third-person singular simple present foreskins, present participle foreskinning, simple past and past participle foreskinned)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To remove the foreskin.
    • 1976, Max Brown, The black Eureka, page 52:
      What she meant, of course, was young initiated men, and any such would be in short supply until after the foreskinning ceremonies at Christmas.
    • 1981, Exile - Volume 8, page 17:
      I always liked an open fire," an open wound, suppuration of silent words from somewhere, a long line of fathers foreskinning for all they were worth, unknown, unsaid, alone in ice-cold space as we're all alone in the absence of God with only His mother, the mother of God, out there in black face, alone herself, the queen of the world...
    • 2000, Peter Kivisto, Georganne Rundblad, Multiculturalism in the United States, →ISBN:
      An article in Instauration entitled “Foreskinning” exclaims that “slicing off babies' foreskins cannot be described as anything but forms of mutilation” performed by “savages.”
  2. (transitive, intransitive) To sexually stimulate by manipulating the foreskin.
    • 2008, Vanessa Place, La Medusa, →ISBN, page 356:
      According to Scotty, who should have played the accordion, and did he, Dr. Bowles now wonders, grow up to be Scotty Boy Potty and was all this merely a terribly tropish bit of biz foreskinning the man he would becum, nuntheless, according to Scott, if one waved bye-bye up and down, i.e. flapping, versus side to side, i.e. wiping, one was a fag.
    • 2010, Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, Powder Necklace: A Novel, →ISBN, page 65:
      S'ter Penny started to go but stopped when she noticed Ivy was still standing with us. "Heh! Ivy Abankwah, jai foreskinning!" She told her to stop doing something -- I wasn't sure what "foreskinning" meant.
    • 2016, Marc Asanov Archibald, OF DOGS AND MEN - A myth therapy, →ISBN:
      Sucking whiskey from a sagging breast/ Sipping the bitter cigar/ foreskinning up and down...

See also

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Further reading

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