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…