פות

Hebrew

Etymology
Root
פ־ו־ת‎ (p-w-t)

In Biblical Hebrew attested twice ambiguously: In the First Book of Kings 7:50 either “front side” or “socket of the door pin” of a door; in the Book of Isaiah 3:17 skulls of women are made scabby and their פֹּת (pōṯ) bared, where it is natural to assume it to mean “foreheads” rather than “pudenda”; due to the scarcity of genital vocabulary from biblical sources one was enticed to instead find it in reinterpretation, just like אֲבִיּוֹנָה‎ (aḇiyyônâ, “caperberry”) came to mean “orgasm”. So it appears as a technical and cultic term borrowed into Proto-Hebrew from Akkadian 𒊕𒆠 (pūtum, “forehead; front”), from Proto-Semitic *piʔat- (“side, edge; fore; forehead”), the same source as פֵּאָה‎ (pēʾâ, “edge, side, face”).

Noun

פות / פֹּת • (pót) f (plural indefinite פותות \ פֻּתּוֹת‎)

  1. vagina, female genitalia

References
  • “פות” in the Hebrew Terms Database of the Academy of Hebrew Language

Further reading

Anagrams
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.