What is the female version of "phallic"?
phal·lic/ˈfalik/Adjective
- Of, relating to, or resembling a phallus or erect penis.
It would have a definition as:
Of, relating to, or resembling a vagina.
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11Perhaps women are not so neatly summed up.– jbelacquaApr 3, 2011 at 7:13
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1@jgbelacqua: ...or perhaps men don't build buildings so often needing resembling much else.– MitchApr 3, 2011 at 15:19
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10I believe the feminine for phallic really ought to be phalliquette. :)– tchrist ♦Apr 3, 2011 at 18:02
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Phalliquette, I like. @tchrist, I'm sure it would raise some fairly vehement opposition from the feminists... good for a laugh.– KarlApr 4, 2011 at 16:47
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4@tchrist that sounds phallacious.– Andrew GrimmFeb 15, 2013 at 11:13
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7 Answers
I think @canadiancreed/Merriam-webster's yonic is a bit quaint. It certainly has a longer history, but that may be because its ancient Sanskrit origins give it a certain air of respectability. Vulvic is more common today, perhaps because we live in an age that doesn't pussy-foot around delicate subjects quite so much (if you'll pardon the double-entendres).
But if we were to allow whimsical neologisms, I'd have to go for male:phallic = female:phannic (which works better for Brits, since our fanny is always a front bottom, not a backside).
answered Apr 3, 2011 at 3:49
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2@user744: Doubtless nothing in particular. Quite a few of the occurrences counted by Ngram are misreadings (of baryonic, for example), and there aren't that many in total anyway. Just goes to show you can't read too much into automated analysis at this level. Apr 4, 2011 at 2:13
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1Out of curiosity, what happened to plain old vaginal?– user13141Oct 28, 2011 at 5:57
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According to Merriam-webster, that would be the term yonic.
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2Of which the opposite is lingamic. It's not a clear antonym, though it would certainly serve. Feb 14, 2013 at 20:34
Lingam is Sanskrit and so is Yoni. Besides meaning male and female genitals, they represent represent spiritual concepts such as 'male' and 'female' aspect of godhead. If 'yonic' is female, then 'lingamic' if I can say so, is the male version. We have to look for or coin one for phallic.
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1This doesn't answer the question asked. Was it intended to be a comment? (Comments require a certain level of reputation, but answers in the "Your answer" box must be answers)– Andrew Leach ♦Mar 5, 2014 at 12:02
Pudendal is the adjective version of pudenda, which means the external genital organs, especially of a woman.
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The word labial might work, depending on what you are trying to convey.
A quick stop by anatomy informs that the female homologue to the male phallus (penis) is the clitoris.
Phallic comes from the Ancient Greek phallos by way of Late Latin phallus.
Conveniently, clitoral comes from the Ancient Greek kleitoris, also by way of Late Latin.
By this deduction, the female analog to phallic is clitoral.
How about 'Vulvic' or 'vulvate'?
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2I posted vulvic almost three years ago, and I'm far from convinced vulvate is really a valid word. It appears in some dictionaries, but not all (it's not in OED, for example). Mar 5, 2014 at 6:32
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As I was reading some literature on phallic celebrations, I happened to read the opposite of it which was clearly YONIC. Yoni is the Sanskrit (as well as many Indian language's) word for female sex organ. Nov 10, 2019 at 8:57