[Skr.] A figure or symbol of the female organ of generation as an object of veneration among the Hindus and others. Hence Yonic a.
1799. Asiatick Researches, III. 363. The navel of VISHNU, by which they mean the os tincæ, is worshipped as one and the same with the sacred yóni.
1824. J. B. Seely, Wonders of Elora, xiii. 302. The circular part is the Yoni, or female nature; while the Ling, the upright stone in the centre, is male nature.
1879. M. Macfie, Relig. Parall., 27. The yonic or moon-worshippers of Chaldea…. The yonic symbolism professed by their remote ancestors in Turkestan, who were originally worshippers of the female principle.
1906. A. E. Whatham, in Amer. Jrnl. Relig. Psychol. & Educ., II. 44. In nature-worship, all natural orifices were reverenced as representing the yoni of the mother-earth goddess.
