The word masturbation is believed by many to derive from the Greek
word mezea (µe?ea, "penises") and the Latin turbare
("to disturb"). A competing etymology based on the Latin manu
stuprare ("to defile with the hand") is said by the Oxford
English Dictionary to be an "old conjecture". The esoteric
and little-used synonym manustupration is similarly derived from manus
stuprare.
