word of the day: pudendum

The word of the day is pudendum:

Etymology:  < classical Latin pudendum, lit. ‘that of which one ought to be ashamed’, use as noun (usually in plural, pudenda , to denote the external genitals) of neuter gerundive of pudēre to cause shame, ashame (see pudent adj.); compare also classical Latin pars pudenda shameful part. Compare Middle French pudendes , plural noun (1532; compare parties pudendes , plural (1509), lit. ‘shameful parts’), pudende , singular noun (1555), French pudendum (1765), pudenda , plural noun (1845; now arch. or literary). Compare earlier pudend n.In post-classical Latin pudenda is also used with spec. reference to the male genitals (4th cent.; 5th cent. in Augustine in pudenda virilia).1. In pl. and sing. The external genitals; esp. the vulva. 

2. fig. The shameful parts of something. rare. (OED)

"Sex figures frequently in the MOMA show, as with 'The Rape' (1934), a painting of a face in which breasts, a navel, and a pudendum stand in for the eyes, the nose, and the mouth."

 - Peter Schjeldahl, "In the head: Balthus and Magritte reconsidered", 7 October 2013 The New Yorker