The term was popularized toward the end of the 19th century by British sexologist Havelock Ellis, who defined autoeroticism as "the phenomena of spontaneous sexual emotion generated in the absence of an external stimulus proceeding, directly or indirectly, from another person".
这个术语是在19世纪末時由英国性学家哈维洛克·艾利斯（Havelock Ellis）推广，他将自体性行为定义为「在没有外部刺激过程的情况下，直接或间接地从另一个人身上产生的自发性情慾的现象」。