Word.ws English Dictionary

erastes

/ɛˈɹæsteɪs/

erastes noun: an adult man who loved or was in a pedagogic relationship with an adolescent boy.

Noun

erastes (plural erastai)

  1. (Ancient Greece) An adult man who loved or was in a pedagogic relationship with an adolescent boy.
    • In regard to the boys (erōmenos) involved in ancient Greek pederasty, Dover (1978:52) asked: “What does the eromenos get out of submission to his erastēs?”2002, Stephen O Murray, Pacific Homosexualities, iUniverse, page 80

Forms of erastes

pluralerastai

Origin of erastes

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἐραστής (erastḗs, “lover”).

Questions about erastes

What does erastes mean?
Erastes means an adult man who loved or was in a pedagogic relationship with an adolescent boy.
What part of speech is erastes?
Erastes is a noun.
How do you pronounce erastes?
Erastes is pronounced /ɛˈɹæsteɪs/.
What is the plural of erastes?
The plural of erastes is erastai.

Words near erastes in the dictionary

  1. Erasmians
  2. Erasmine
  3. Erasmus
  4. Erasmuses
  5. erastai
  6. erastes
  7. Erastian
  8. Erastianism
  9. Erastianize
  10. Erastianized
  11. Erastianizes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: erastes (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “erastes.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/erastes. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.