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# The 18th-century term onanism and its mistaken link to the biblical Onan
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/v-xviii-veke-bylo-neskolko-bestsellerov-posviashchennykh-masturbatsii-kotorye-konechno-zhe-ee-osuzhdali-i-opisyvali-kak-ne-prosto-grekhovnoe-no-i-chrezvychaino-vrednoe-zaniatie/
- Published: 2017-08-19T16:43:59.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:08:33.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Faith, Books, Mores

The eighteenth century produced several bestsellers on masturbation, which naturally condemned it as not merely sinful but exceedingly harmful. There were, it is true, works that refuted the delusion, but, as so often happens, they never won popularity enough to dispel the myth.

To the eighteenth century we also owe the term "onanism", which was mistaken from the outset. The word is formed from the name of the Old Testament figure Onan, whom the Lord put to death for refusing to beget an heir by his elder brother's widow. He lay with his widowed sister-in-law, as the law prescribed, but spilled his seed upon the ground so that she should not bear a child who would be reckoned the son of his elder brother.

The ancient Hebrews generally believed that demons were born of seed spilled upon the ground (but that is a separate conversation). Yet Onan's breach of the levirate marriage, a custom ordained by God, proved a fatal error, which in time gave rise to yet another error.

Strictly speaking, then, onanism is coitus interruptus, not masturbation, but the Puritans do not trouble themselves with sources: what matters to them is that no seed be spilled.