sheela-na-gig
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Irish Síle na gcíoch (“Julia of the breasts”). Attested in English from the 19th century.
Noun[edit]
sheela-na-gig (plural sheela-na-gigs)
- A carving of a naked woman with an exaggerated vulva, found in old British and Irish architecture, perhaps used to ward off death and evil.
References[edit]
- John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “sheela-na-gig”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.