[yoo-nuh
k] 
| a castrated man, esp. one formerly employed by Oriental rulers as a harem guard or palace official. |
bed, place of sleeping + -ochos keeping (akin to échein to hold| eu·nuch (yōō'nək) n.
[Middle English eunuk, from Latin eunūchus, from Greek eunoukhos : eunē, bed + -okhos, keeping (from ekhein, to keep; see segh- in Indo-European roots).] eu'nuch·ism n. Word History: The word eunuch does not derive, as one might think, from the operation that produced a eunuch but rather from one of his functions. Eunuch goes back to the Greek word eunoukhos, "a castrated person employed to take charge of the women of a harem and act as chamberlain." The Greek word is derived from eunē, "bed," and ekhein, "to keep." A eunuch, of course, was ideally suited to guard the bedchamber of women. |
"Eunuches is he þat is i-gilded, and suche were somtyme i-made wardeynes of ladyes in Egipt." [Travisa, 1387]
eunuch eu·nuch (y&oomacr;'nək)
n.
A man or boy whose testes have been removed or have never developed.