Carnal knowledge

Carnal knowledge is an archaic or legal euphemism for sexual intercourse. In modern statutes, the term "sexual penetration" is widely used, though with various definitions.

The term derives from carnal, meaning "of the flesh", and the Biblical usage of the verb know/knew, a euphemism for sexual conduct.

One examples of this usage is in the first part of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, which describes how Adam and Eve conceived their first child:

And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bore Cain, and said, I have gotten a man with [the help of] Jehovah.

— Genesis 4:1

Also in Genesis is Lot's plea to the people of Sodom to whom he offered his virgin daughters, in place of his guests:

And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men that came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

And Lot went out unto them to the door, and shut the door after him. And he said, I pray you, my brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters that have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing, forasmuch as they are come under the shadow of my roof.