Virginity

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In Roman times, the Vestal Virgins remained celibate for 30 years on penalty of death.

"Virgin" and "Maiden" redirect here. For other uses, seeVirgin disambiguation) and Maiden (disambiguation).

A Virgin (or maiden) is, originally, a woman who has never had sexual intercourse. Virginity is the state of being a virgin. It is derived from the Latin virgo, which means "sexually inexperienced woman", used typically of adolescents, but also of older women, and even goddesses.

As in Latin, the English word is also often used with wider reference, by relaxing the age, gender or sexual criteria.^[1]Hence, more mature women can be virgins (The Virgin Queen), men can be virgins, and potential initiates into many fields can be colloquially termed virgins, for example a skydiving "virgin". In the last usage, virgin simply means uninitiated.

Also by extension from its primary sense, the idea that a virgin has a sexual "blank slate",^[2] unchanged by any past intimate connexion or experience,^[2] leads to the abstraction of unadulterated purity (see below). Hence, virgin can even be used with non-human referents. Unalloyed metal is sometimes described as virgin.^[1] Some cocktails can be described as virgin, when lacking the alcoholic admixture.^[1] Similarly, olive oil may be called virgin if it contains no refined oil and has an acidity below 2%, or extra-virgin if it comes from a cold pressing with an acidity below .08%.^[1]

The last instance also incorporates yet another association of virginity—the notability of its loss. More properly, the association is with the significance of the addition of a new status, rather than a loss. Hence this association is typically found in references to the first instance of a potentially extended series of like events. Just as extra-virgin olive oil is from the first pressing, so a maiden orvirgin speech is an incumbent's first address. The same metaphor, using the synonym maiden, is applied to the first or maiden voyage of a ship. A woman's maiden name is the surname she had when she was (presumed to be) a virgin—her first surname. In cricket, a maiden over is an over from which no runs were scored. Maiden Castles are those with the reputation of never having been captured.

Wool can be virgin.^[1] Computer systems can be virgin.^[3] Unfertilized gametes can be virgin.^[1]Females of various species, by analogy with Homo sapiens, if they have never mated, can also be called virgin.^[1]

Chastity does not imply virginity. Chastity derives from the Latin ‘castitas’, meaning ‘cleanliness’ or ‘purity’ — and does not necessarily mean the renunciation of all sexual relations, but rather the temperate sexual behavior of legitimately married spouses, for the purpose of procreation, or the sexual continence of the unmarried.^[4]