homosexuality English · revision 39933

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=1892}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * UK: /ˌhəʊmə(ʊ)sɛkʃʊˈælɪti/, /ˌhəʊmə(ʊ)ˌsɛksjʊˈælɪti/^(Wiktionary)

+ * US: /ˌhoʊməˌsɛkʃuˈælɪti/, /ˌhoʊmoʊˌsɛkʃuˈælɪti/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It was formed [[af|en|homosexual|-ity]],^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)^(SOED 2002) after [[m|de|Homosexualität]], coined in 1869 by the writer K. M. Kertbeny;^(OED 2026) [[m|fr|homosexualité]] is recorded from 1891.^(OED 2026) The adjective [[homosexual]] joins [[homo-]], from [[grc|ὁμός|tr=homós|t=same]], with the Latin-based [[sexual]],^(Etymonline)^(OED 2026) and Havelock Ellis called it a "barbarously hybrid word" in 1897.^(Etymonline) The German adjective first appeared in print in Kertbeny's anonymous pamphlet of 1869 against a Prussian law that punished sex between men.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==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.^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024) Dictionary.com dates it to 1890–95.^(Dictionary.com 2016)

+

+ ==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''.^(Etymonline) Earlier English terms included ''sexual inversion'' (1883), later simply ''inversion'', which Ellis said came from Italian psychology.^(Etymonline) The sense "sexual activity between people of the same sex" is recorded from 1897, in Ellis and Symonds's ''Sexual Inversion'',^(OED 2026) and the count noun, a particular homosexual nature or experience, from 1921.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1869 – German ''Homosexualität''.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1892 – homosexual nature or identity.^(OED 2026)^(MWU 2024)

+ * 1897 – sexual activity between people of the same sex.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1921 – as a count noun, an instance of homosexual nature or experience.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # Sexual or romantic [[attraction]] to people of one's own [[sex]]; the quality of being [[homosexual]].^(Collins 2023)^(MWU 2024)^(OED 2026)

+ # Sexual activity between people of the same sex.^(MWU 2024)^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[antihomosexuality]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[homosexual]]

+ * [[heterosexuality]]

+ * [[bisexuality]]

+ * [[sexuality]]

+ * [[homo-]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}