The Dildo: A Short History of a Long Story

by David Rosen

Do you own a dildo or a vibrator and, if so, when was the last time you used it? If you don’t, why not?

The story of the dildo is the story of how sin became the new normal. The secrets of the dildo are realized in the lives of those who pushed the boundaries of sexual pleasure and, thus, changed history as well as one of the most private, personal human experiences.

No one knows who coined the modern word “dildo.” The Oxford English Dictionary offers two hypotheses as to the term’s origin, both originate in 14th- to 15th-century Italy. One comes from the Latin infinitive “dilatare,” meaning to open wide; the other is derived from the Italian “diletto,” meaning delight. In Renaissance Italy, dildos were typically made of leather and used with olive oil for lubrication; upper-class Italians often embossed their sex toys with silver, gold and ivory.

Archeologists date the first known dildo from the Paleolithic era, some 2.6 million years ago. This is a period of early human civilization defined by the most primitive forms of technology, the first use of stone tools. Surviving dildos were carved of stone and bone. For example, in 2005, researchers discovered a 28,000-year-old stone phallus in the Hohle Fels Cave near Ulm, Germany. An antler bone phallus dating at 4,000–6,000 years old was discovered in Motala, Sweden. In China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region, a 4,000-year old female mummy was discovered clutching a ritual dildo carving measuring 4-cm long and still (mostly) painted red.

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Medical doctors are credited with inventing the modern vibrator, originally an instrument to treat women suffering from that age-old “female” disorder, “hysteria”; hysteria is the Greek word for “womb.” Galen of Pergamon, the ancient Greek physician, prescribed “genital massage” to treat the condition. For centuries, male doctors massaged to orgasm, with their fingers and hands, the clitoris of their female patients diagnosed suffering from hysteria. Many doctors did not wish to engage in such an intimate practice and sought a mechanical means to provide the procedure.

In the 18th century, a French physician invented the Tremoussoir, a handheld, wind-up device, to deal with the problem; it made its U.S. appearance in the 1750s. A century later, in 1869, George Taylor, MD, patented the first steam-powered massage and vibratory apparatus. While costly and bulky, it was used by…