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Blackadder vocabulary
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eunuch
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synonyms: inseminared, unpaved, saris ???
► definition
Definition:A male of the human species castrated; commonly, one of a class of such persons, in Oriental countries, having charge of the women's apartments. Some of them, in former times, gained high official rank.Noah Webster. Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913)---Castration was typically carried out on the soon-to-be eunuch without his consent in order that he might perform a specific social function; this was common in many societies.[...]Eunuchs would usually be servants or slaves who had been castrated in order to make them reliable servants of a royal court where physical access to the ruler could wield great influence. Seemingly lowly domestic functions—such as making the ruler's bed, bathing him, cutting his hair, carrying him in his litter, or even relaying messages—could in theory give a eunuch "the ruler's ear" and impart de facto power on the formally humble but trusted servant.
► uses
Uses:
Ceila: I particularly hope they've got the Morris dancers. I love them.
Queen: Yes. I like the eunuchs.
Celia: Oh yes, the eunuchs! Ah, I wish I owned one.
Queen: I wish I'd married one.
BBC. Blackadder Season 1, episode 2: Born to be King
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fat women lolling on divans, turbans on their heads or velvet caps, being fanned with peacock tails, a eunuch in the background standing guard.
Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid's Tale (1986)
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How are thou, thou globby bottle of cheap stinking chip-oil? Come and get one in the yarbles, if you have any yarbles, you eunuch jelly, thou.
Anthony Burgess. A Clockwork Orange, p.21 (1962)
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Ladies who are known most innocent for them;
Those will I beg, to make me eunuchs of:
And they shall fan me with ten estrich tails
A-piece, made in a plume to gather wind.
Ben Jonson. The Alchemist (1610)
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The twenty Janissaries had sworn they would never surrender. The extremities of famine to which they were reduced, obliged them to eat our two eunuchs, for fear of violating their oath. And at the end of a few days they resolved also to devour the women.
Voltaire. Candide
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