erotic, a. and n.
(ɛˈrɒtɪk)
[ad. Gr. ἐρωτικ-ός, f. ἔρως, ἔρωτ-ος sexual love. Cf. Fr. érotique.]
A. adj. Of or pertaining to the passion of love; concerned with or treating of love; amatory.
| 1651 Charleton Ephes. & Cimm. Matrons ii. Pref., That Erotic passion is allowed by all learned men to be a species of Melancholy. a 1789 Burney Hist. Mus. (ed. 2) I. v. 61 These modes had other..dependent on them, such as the Erotic or amorous. 1823 tr. Sismondi's Lit. Eur. (1846) I. xvi. 448 The lyric and erotic poets of his country. 1850 Sir J. Stephen Eccl. Biog. I. 158 Arising from these erotic dreams, he suspended at her shrine his secular weapons. 1865 Hook Lives Abps. III. i. §9. 101 The common language of civility, as addressed to a lady, was erotic. |
B. n. a. An erotic or amatory poem. b. [after ns. in -ic, repr. Gr. -ικὴ (τέχνη).] A ‘doctrine’ or ‘science’ of love.
| 1858 Sat. Rev. V. 266/1 A lecture on popular erotics from the authoress. 1862 Sat. Rev. 8 Feb. 150 Religious erotics are something worse than an offence against taste. 1872 M. Collins Plunges for Pearl III. viii. 193 Instruction in the famous science of erotic. 1888 Athenæum 18 Aug. 214/2 A strange doctrine of ‘spiritual wives’—a mystical erotic. Ibid. 215/1 The sublime erotic, free from all passional instincts. |
Hence † eˈrotical, a. Obs., of the nature of, or pertaining to, sexual love. eˈrotically adv., in an erotic manner; in an erotic sense. eˈroticism [+ -ism], erotic spirit or character; also = erotism sense a.
| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. ii. i. ii, Jason Pratensis writes copiously of this Erotical love. 1882–3 Schaff Encycl. Relig. Knowl. I. 398 Others [understand it (Song of Solomon)] erotically. 1881 Sat. Rev. 9 July 53/1 The religious eroticism of Redi. 1885 Ibid. 11 Apr. 483/1 This martyr [Mme. de Montifaud] to eroticism. |