Why do I need to know émasculé?

Because its sounds very similar to the English word ’emasculated’, but its meaning can be quite different.

What does it mean?

Émasculé – roughly pronounced eh-mass-cue-lay – may look a lot like the English term “to emasculate” – depriving a man of his masculine role or identity. While the word shares the same root in both languages, the French version is a bit more intense, so beware when using it in casual conversations.

In French, émasculé means to castrate or sterilise – it can mean both a surgical castration or an accident or attack that caused a man to lose his testicles. 

It can also mean to render something less powerful, and in this sense it might even be used to discuss a law or political decree being watered-down or becoming weaker in some way. 

As for the figurative side of the word, while the French can also use ‘émasculé’ to refer to being rendered less manly, you would be more likely to hear the term “castré” used to convey this idea.

In fact, in France, a woman who in English might be called a “ball-buster” or as “domineering” was historically referred to as a “femme castratrice” (a woman castrator), which, unsurprisingly, would have been considered an insult.

Use it like this

Les journaux français ont dit que l’homme avait été émasculé lors d’une manifestation – French headlines said the man lost a testicle during a protest.

Après que le projet de loi soit passé au sénat, il a été émasculé. Il a à peine la même valeur que dans sa version originale. – After the bill passed through the senate, it was watered down. It hardly carries the same significance as it did in its original version.