Note 12 — VIRGINITY AND ITS TRADITIONS.

i.e., a legalised defilement or ravishing. Blondeau, in his Dictionnaire érotique latin-français (Liseux: Paris, 1885), translates stupratio as “a combat in which one forces a beauty to yield to one’s passion ... to take possession of the honour of some pretty woman ... the struggle in which women succumb with pleasure.” Stupro, the verb; stuprator, the noun; and stupratus, the adjective have kindred meanings.