According to the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), the word libido refers to “sexual desire, considered by some authors as the impulse and root of the most various manifestations of psychic activity”.
Coined by Sigmund Freud
This definition most likely alludes to Sigmund Freud, who coined this term in the 19th century. It began to be used as a technicality in medicine and psychology, to later become general in common language. “The libido follows the paths of narcissistic needs and attaches itself to those objects that ensure their satisfaction,” wrote the father of psychoanalysis in his book The Future of an Illusion (1927).
Excessive desire
A curious aspect is that, at first, the word libido had nothing to do with sex: originally it is a Latin word and means ‘excessive desire’. It applied, for example, to the conduct of Roman emperors, who were very prone to commit excesses of all kinds. Today, however, the word libido is practically equivalent to sexual desire.
Common mistakes we’ve all made
At the linguistic level, there are some common mistakes in the use of the term. One very frequent and one that the RAE Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubts includes is pronouncing or writing the word as if it were esdrújula – accented on the first syllable-, and not flat – accented on the second syllable-.
On the other hand, although it ends in ‘o’, the word is feminine and as such is preceded by feminine articles: ‘the libido’ and it is not correct to say ‘the libido’. Finally, the word libido is with `b ‘, since` livid’ means “bruised or excessively pale.”
Other curious terms
The word libido is derived from the term libidinous, which refers to people “lustful, lascivious, prone to sexual pleasures.” Another related word that perhaps you did not know is ‘sicalíptico’, derived from ‘sicalipsis’ and that the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy defines as “sexual malice or erotic mischief”. These terms were widely used in Spanish theatrical and literary slang of the first half of the 20th century.
In fact, psycheptic art is a denomination that refers to the set of artistic or pseudo-artistic manifestations related to sexual seduction. It occurred between the end of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th and was practiced in theaters and cafes.
Lust wasn’t a sex term either
Another word that originally lacked sexual connotations is lust and, in fact, in the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy there are two meanings: “excessive desire for sexual pleasure” and “excess or too much in some things”. Indeed, the term lust comes from the Latin ‘luxuria’ which in turn comes from ‘luxus’ and meant excessive luxury.
In the same way that the term libido was associated with the life full of excesses of the Roman emperors, the meaning of the word lust was related to the waste and excesses of the richest people in the time of Ancient Rome. These excesses also included all kinds of sexual vices and perversions.
