Etymologically
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homosexuality

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 22:03. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˌhəʊmə(ʊ)sɛkʃʊˈælɪti/, /ˌhəʊmə(ʊ)ˌsɛksjʊˈælɪti/[1]
  • US: /ˌhoʊməˌsɛkʃuˈælɪti/, /ˌhoʊmoʊˌsɛkʃuˈælɪti/[1]

Etymology

It was formed from English homosexual + -ity,[2][3][4] after Homosexualität, coined in 1869 by the writer K. M. Kertbeny;[2] homosexualité is recorded from 1891.[2] The adjective homosexual joins homo-, from Ancient Greek ὁμός (homós, “same”), with the Latin-based sexual,[3][2] and Havelock Ellis called it a "barbarously hybrid word" in 1897.[3] The German adjective first appeared in print in Kertbeny's anonymous pamphlet of 1869 against a Prussian law that punished sex between men.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The state of being sexually or romantically attracted to people of one's own sex: 1892, in a letter of J. A. Symonds.[2][3][5] Dictionary.com dates it to 1890–95.[6]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English with the late 19th-century medical and psychological writing on sex: the adjective homosexual is first found in English in 1892, in C. G. Chaddock's translation of Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis.[3] Earlier English terms included sexual inversion (1883), later simply inversion, which Ellis said came from Italian psychology.[3] The sense "sexual activity between people of the same sex" is recorded from 1897, in Ellis and Symonds's Sexual Inversion,[2] and the count noun, a particular homosexual nature or experience, from 1921.[2]

Timeline

  • 1869 – German Homosexualität.[2]
  • 1892 – homosexual nature or identity.[2][5]
  • 1897 – sexual activity between people of the same sex.[2]
  • 1921 – as a count noun, an instance of homosexual nature or experience.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Sexual or romantic attraction to people of one's own sex; the quality of being homosexual.
  2. Sexual activity between people of the same sex.

Word family

  • antihomosexuality
  • homosexual
  • heterosexuality
  • bisexuality
  • sexuality
  • homo-

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House