prophylactic

English

WOTD – 4 March 2016

Etymology

From Latin prophylacticus, from Ancient Greek προφυλακτικός (prophulaktikós, “prophylactic”).

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /pɹɒfəˈlæktɪk/
  • Audio (Australia):(file)
  • Hyphenation: pro‧phy‧lac‧tic
  • Rhymes: -æktɪk

Noun

prophylactic (plural prophylactics)

  1. A medicine which preserves or defends against disease; a preventive.
    1. (US, specifically) A prophylactic condom.
      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:condom
      • 1977, Human Life Center, International Review of Natural Family Planning, Human Life Center, St. John's University, page 2:
        It is not clear whether such education is to be directed to homosexuals (for whom prophylactics are not a contraceptive) or to heterosexuals as well (for whom prophylactics are a contraceptive).
      • 1994, Mary Louise Roberts, Civilization Without Sexes: Reconstructing Gender in Postwar France, 1917–1927, University of Chicago Press, page 96:
        Given the widespread use of coitus interruptus and male prophylactics as contraceptive practices in France […]
      • 2000, Peter Parnell, John Irving, The Cider House Rules: Here in St. Cloud's, Dramatists Play Service, Inc., page 46:
        Some men put the prophylactic on just the tip of the penis: this is a mistake, because the prophylactic will come off.
  2. (figuratively) Any device or mechanism intended to prevent harmful consequences.
    The securities laws are a prophylactic against stock fraud.
    • 1984 December 8, Robert Halfhill, “Pornography, Free Speech and Gay Separatism”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 21, page 5:
      Since tere are increasingly powerful anti-free speech tendencies in the left in general and in the Lesbian and Gay movements in particular in the form of the antiporn movement and other tendencies, I will quote extensively from the second chapter of On Liberty, "On The Liberty Of Thought And Discussion," as a valuable and much needed prophylactic to these trends.

Translations

Adjective

prophylactic (comparative more prophylactic, superlative most prophylactic)

  1. Serving to prevent or protect against an undesired effect, especially disease or pregnancy.
    • 1955 September 15, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, Paris: The Olympia Press […], →OCLC:
      It occurred to me that regular hours, home-cooked meals, all the conventions of marriage, the prophylactic routine of its bedroom activities and, who knows, the eventual flowering of certain moral values, of certain spiritual substitutes, might help me, if not to purge myself of my degrading and dangerous desires, at least to keep them under pacific control.

Translations

Synonyms

Derived terms

Interlingua

Adjective

prophylactic (not comparable)

  1. prophylactic, preventive
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