Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun sexual feelings of adults directed towards children.
  • noun Overt sexual acts directed toward children.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a sexual attraction to children

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek παιδόφιλος (paidophilos), from παῖς (pais, "boy, child") and φιλέω (phileō, "I love")

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Examples

  • The word paedophilia should never have been in the interview, as he was talking about "paiderastia" - relations between men and boys - of the ancient Greeks as part of a hypothetical, intellectual conversation, he said.

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2011

  • What we have in those cultures that do not condemn the unconscionable abuses we'd class as incest and paedophilia is conventional morality failing to be ethical.

    An Open Letter to John C. Wright Hal Duncan 2009

  • What we have in those cultures that do not condemn the unconscionable abuses we'd class as incest and paedophilia is conventional morality failing to be ethical.

    Archive 2009-08-01 Hal Duncan 2009

  • Lock em up and never let them out, paedophilia is not a crime you can punish effectively just as you cant punish so one for being bi-polar.

    Wear Your Love Like Heaven « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2007

  • And paedophilia is surely a far worse a sin than a bit of fudge-packing?

    Your Honour, I was trolling in a westerly direction, when I vada'd ... Laban 2006

  • 'In my opinion, the demand that a bishop be obligated to contact the police in order to denounce a priest who has admitted the offence of paedophilia is unfounded,'

    Guests 2005

  • Makes me glad, as a father, to live here in the UK, where the clear-eyed, sensible view of paedophilia is doing so much to ensure the safety of my daughter from assaults by strangers (an occurrence that is so rare as to be practically nonexistent) while doing practically nothing to protect her from the people who are statistically most likely to assault her -- her family, her friends 'parents, her teachers, and other people known to her, who account for the overwhelming majority of assaults on children.

    Boing Boing 2008

  • Oh, and I'd love to see you explain your internet history to the authorities .... "well officer, I'm having an argument on the internet with a load of people I don't know about paedophilia, which is why I have loads of google searches on the subject"

    Army Rumour Service 2010

  • Bryce: I noticed the academic way you spell "paedophilia," does that mean you only violate honor students?

    JJ ABRAMS’ STAR TREK TEASER (NON-BOOTLEG) 2008

  • The two issues are the bogeymen used by the government when it wants to do something ridiculous and both are surrounded by hysteria, but of the two, it is paedophilia which is the less public, less spectacular, but ultimately more real danger.

    Manchester Evening News - RSS Feed 2010

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