Spadon

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A male who has been castrated, most often a eunuch or an animal such as a gelded horse
2. An archaic term for a man or animal whose testicles have been removed by castration
3. Refers to a castrated male person or beast, such as a eunuch or a gelding

Etymology: In Latin, "spado" was a word for a eunuch, a man who had been castrated. Greek "spadōn," the source of the Latin form, comes from a verb meaning roughly "to draw out" or "to tear," which points to the surgical act itself. The word was never a euphemism. It named the condition plainly. English took the term for men who had been castrated, and it was also applied to male animals, such as geldings, that had been neutered. Because it was a technical and somewhat clinical word, it has stayed a specialist term rather than a common one.

Synonyms: gelding