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".
Pojam je populariziran krajem 19-tog stoljeća od strane britanskog seksologa Havelocka Ellisa, koji je definirao autoerotizam kao "fenomen spontanih seksualnih emocija generiranih u odsutnosti vanjskih stimulativnih procedura, direktno ili indirektno, prema drugoj osobi."