virgin

Etymology

From Middle English virgine, from Old French virgine, from Latin virginem, accusative of virgō. Doublet of Virgo. Displaced native Old English fǣmne.

noun

1. person who has not had sexual intercourse, animal that has never mated
   On the other hand, the daughter of a clergyman repeatedly performed fellatio instead of genital intercourse so that she could remain a virgin. 1970 Marriage in Life and Literature page 169
   As the years went on she became extraordinarily effective at fellatio but, despite the fact that she was Mrs James Baylor, age 32, she was still a virgin. 1974, The New Review, Volume 1, Part Page 15
   among students we studied , 60 % of the virgin females had had oral sex experience 1987 Psychology and Personal Growthpage 208
   A girl is a virgin until she experience penis-inside-vagina intercourse 1988 page 186
   26 percent of virgin females have performed fellatio while 87 percent of nonvirgins have done so . 1992, Cosmopolitan, volume 212, page 177
   I was a virgin. In my senior year of high school, I had experienced one inchoate handjob 1993 Santa Clara Review page 102
   adolescents often define themselves as still a virgin while experimenting with oral sex 2004 The Handbook of Sexuality in Close Relationships page 67
   middle-school girls sometimes look at oral sex as an absolute bargain - you don't get pregnant, they think you don't get diseases, you're still a virgin and you're in control 2008, College Student Journal - Volume 42, Issues 1-2 - Page 183
   Shepard: Are you telling me you're a virgin? Liara: "Virgin" does not have the same connotation in my culture as in yours. But is is true I have never done this before. 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-1
   A Pike High School teen says most teens “think if you have oral sex you are still a virgin. 2012 Saying Yes! to Saying No page 21
   she's never actually told the girls she's still a virgin—that the pinnacle of her sexual experience was giving a pretty cruddy handjob to Jared Wells 2015 In Some Other World, Maybe: A Novel - Page 28
   It's really a miracle I'm still a virgin at twenty-one in the first place. I guess my talent at blowjobs and handjobs paid off. 2020 Page 1139
2. A person who has never engaged in any sexual activity at all.
3. (Catholicism, Orthodoxy or historical) Someone vowed to virginity (usually a woman and often a consecrated virgin), or someone who died in defense of their virginity; (especially) one venerated as a saint.
   In its list of saints, the Catholic Church classifies St. Agnes, St. Maria Goretti, and St. Thérèse of Lisieux as virgins.
   This was the relation of the order of virgins to the Church from the latter part of the fourth to the beginning of the seventh century. The modern “sister” had no exact prototype in the Church of the first seven centuries. 1894, Authorized Report of the Proceedings of the ... Congress of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States ..., page 109
   The list of saints' days and festivals includes a number of the Romish holidays, properly so called, viz.: Lucian, priest and martyr, Jan. 8 ; Hilary, bishop and confessor, Jan. 13 ; Prisca, virgin and martyr, Jan. 18 ; Fabian, bishop and martyr, Jan. 20 ; Agnes, virgin and martyr, Jan. 21 […] 1894, John McClintock, James Strong, Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, page 26
   It is evident that those from the priesthood are chiefly taken from the order of virgins, or if not from virgins, at least from monks; or if not from the order of monks, then they are wont to be made priests who keep themselves from their wives […]. 1900, A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church: Second Series, page 366
   It ought to have become apparent, however, that the well-established order of widows was the model for the newly developing order of virgins. Both orders earned their legitimization from the way of life adopted by their members […] 1994, Susanna Elm, `Virgins of God' : The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity: The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity, Clarendon Press, page 174
   According to Jerome's account, a young man, who desired to seduce a consecrated virgin of the church, at first attempted to do so through the standard means of seduction: namely, “with touching, jokes, nods, whistles, and the rest” (Vit. Hil. 21.2670–75). 2007, Todd C. Penner, Caroline Vander Stichele, Mapping Gender in Ancient Religious Discourses, BRILL, page 89
   Grant, O Lord, I beseech thee, that the Virgin and Martyr, St. Philomena, may solicit thy mercy for us. I implore her intercession, through the merits of her chastity, and by the glory that she gave to thy power, in dying for thee. 2015, Anonymous, Aeterna Press, The Life and Miracles: Saint Philomena, Virgin and Martyr, Aeterna Press
4. (informal) One who has never used or experienced a specified thing.
   I've never eaten tofu before—you could say I'm a tofu virgin.
5. Any of several species of gossamer-winged butterflies of the family Lycaenidae.
6. (entomology) A female insect producing eggs from which young are hatched, though there has been no fecundation by a male; a parthenogenetic insect.

adj

1. (usually not comparable) In a state of virginity; chaste, not having had sexual intercourse.
   From their embraces was born the handsome Actaeon, a naive boy, who had less excuse than other men, given that he was her son, for believing her to be a virgin. It's true that he was even more virgin than his mother. 1988, Hubert Monteilhet, Neropolis
   Helvidius […] took the plain meaning of scripture to say that Jesus patently had brothers and sisters, so therefore his mother, Mary, had enjoyed a normal family life rather than remaining perpetually virgin. 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 314
2. Of a physical object, untouched.
   There is something about virgin sand which arouses all the worst instincts of the detective-story writer. One feels an irresisitible impulse to go and make footprints all over it. 1932, Dorothy L Sayers, chapter 1, in Have his Carcase
3. Not yet cultivated, explored, or exploited by humans or humans of certain civilizations.
   virgin prairie
   virgin ecosystem
   virgin forest
   virgin clay ― clay that has never been fired
   The virgin lands of the Americas were awaiting the Europeans.
   The same bounty of Summer, the same milde remission of Winter, with a more virgin and unexhausted soyle being materiall arguments to shew that modesty and truth receive no diminution by the comparison. 1650, Edward Williams, Virginia: More Especially the South Part Thereof
   For today’s owners of surveillance capital the experiential realities of bodies, thoughts and feelings are as virgin and blameless as nature’s once-plentiful meadows, rivers, oceans and forests before they fell to the market dynamic. 2019-01-20, John Naughton, quoting Shoshana Zuboff, “‘The goal is to automate us’: welcome to the age of surveillance capitalism”, in The Guardian
4. Inexperienced.
   The woman shook dangerously, an obvious virgin gunhandler. 2014, Jeremiah Sanchez, Eden's Scarecrow: Real Eyes
5. Of olive oil, obtained by mechanical means, so that the oil is not altered.
   Wondering how some oil is somehow more virgin than regular virgin olive oil can be a real head-scratcher. 2013, Cheryl Forberg, Cooking with Quinoa For Dummies, page 62
6. (usually not comparable) Of mixed drinks, not containing alcohol.
   a virgin daiquiri