lesbian

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A woman who is sexually and romantically attracted to other women.

   She came out as a lesbian in her twenties.

2. 2
   adj

   Relating to women who are sexually and romantically attracted to other women.

   They have been in a lesbian relationship for ten years.

Simplified etymology

Lesbian derives from Lesbos, the Greek island where the lyric poet Sappho lived. Because surviving fragments of Sappho’s poetry express affection and admiration for women, the word acquired its association with female homosexuality in the mid-18th century.

From Latin Lesbiana, from Ancient Greek Λέσβος (Lésbos) + Latin adjective suffix -iana; by reference to Sappho of Lesbos (whence also sapphist, sapphic), known for her sentimental poems about women. This sense of the word may have been borrowed from, or influenced by, the German cognate lesbisch, where it is found in medical literature from the 1830s.

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary