Paidophilia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Sexual attraction to children, typically manifested as a persistent psychological condition
2. A psychiatric disorder characterized by erotic interest in prepubescent children
3. A paraphilic disorder involving recurrent sexual attraction to children

Etymology: This spelling is a variant of "paedophilia" (or "pedophilia" in American usage), built from two Greek elements: "pais" (genitive "paidos"), meaning child, and "philia," meaning affection or friendship. The "i" in the spelling you sent is not standard in English. The modern sense has drifted far from its parts. In Greek, "philia" covered a broad range of bonds, from friendship to family loyalty, and the compound carried no sexual meaning. The term was coined in the late nineteenth century, when German-language psychiatrists needed clinical labels for sexual behaviour, and it reached English through that medical literature. Today it is a narrow clinical and legal term for sexual attraction to prepubescent children, a meaning the Greek elements do not convey on their own.