:Terminology of homosexuality

The term homosexual can be used as an adjective to describe the sexual attractions and behaviors of people attracted to the same sex. Author and gay pioneer Quentin Crisp said that the term should be "homosexualist", adding that no one says "I am a sexual".{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_j26OASthY |title=Quentin Crisp on the gay liberation movement, 1977: CBC Archives |date=June 28, 2013 |publisher=CBC |via=YouTube}} Some gay people argue that the use of homosexual as a noun is offensive, arguing that they are people first and their homosexuality being merely an attribute of their humanity. Even if they do not consider the term offensive, some people in same-gender relationships may object to being described as homosexual because they identify as bisexual+, or another orientation.{{Cite web |last=Savin-Williams |first=Ritch C. |date=July 14, 2016 |title=Bisexual, Not Bisexual |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sex-sexuality-and-romance/201607/bisexual-not-bisexual |website=Psychology Today}}

Some style guides recommend that the terms homosexual and homosexuality be avoided altogether, lest their use cause confusion or arouse controversy. In particular, the description of individuals as homosexual may be offensive, partially because of the negative clinical association of the word stemming from its use in describing same-gender attraction as a pathological state before homosexuality was removed from the American Psychiatric Association's list of mental disorders in 1973.GLAAD [http://www.glaad.org/reference/offensive GLAAD Media Reference Guide - Terms To Avoid] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120420141352/http://www.glaad.org/reference/offensive |date=2012-04-20 }} The Associated Press and The New York Times style guides restrict usage of the terms.GLAAD [http://www.glaad.org/reference/style GLAAD Media Reference Guide - AP & New York Times Style] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113213829/http://www.glaad.org/reference/style |date=2014-11-13 }}

Same-gender oriented people seldom apply such terms to themselves, and public officials and agencies often avoid them. For instance, the Safe Schools Coalition of Washington's Glossary for School Employees advises that gay is the "preferred synonym for homosexual",{{cite web |url=http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/glossary.pdf |title=Glossary |publisher=Safe Schools Coalition |access-date=2011-01-20 |archive-date=2011-05-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515204547/http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/glossary.pdf |url-status=live }} and goes on to suggest avoiding the term homosexual as it is "clinical, distancing, and archaic".

However, the terms homosexual and homosexuality are sometimes deemed appropriate in referring to behavior (although same-gender is the preferred adjective). Using homosexuality or homosexual to refer to behavior may be inaccurate but does not carry the same potentially offensive connotations that using homosexual to describe a person does. When referring to people, homosexual might be considered derogatory and the terms gay and lesbian are preferred. Some have argued that homosexual places emphasis on sexuality over humanity, and is to be avoided when describing a person. Gay man or lesbian are the preferred nouns for referring to people, which stress cultural and social matters over sex.

The New Oxford American Dictionary{{cite web |url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/gay?q=gay |title=NOAD |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=2013-10-21 |archive-date=2013-10-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023064036/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/gay?q=gay |url-status=dead }} says that gay is the preferred term.

People with a same-gender sexual orientation generally prefer the terms gay, lesbian, or bisexual. The most common terms are gay (both men and women) and lesbian (women only). Other terms include same gender loving and same-sex-oriented.

Among some sectors of gay sub-culture, same-gender sexual behavior is sometimes viewed as solely for physical pleasure instead of romantic. Men on the down-low (or DL) may engage in covert sexual activity with other men while pursuing sexual and romantic relationships with women.

The choice of terms regarding sexual orientation may imply a certain political outlook, and different terms have been preferred at different times and in different places.

Historian and philosopher Michel Foucault argued that homosexual and heterosexual identities did not emerge until the 19th century. Prior to that time, he said, the terms described practices and not identity. Foucault cited Karl Westphal's famous 1870 article Contrary Sexual Feeling as the "date of birth" of the categorization of sexual orientation.Foucault, 1976 Some scholars, however, have argued that there are significant continuities between past and present conceptualizations of sexuality, with various terms having been used for homosexuality.{{cite book |last=Norton |first=Rictor |date=2016 |title=Myth of the Modern Homosexual |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DkTqDAAAQBAJ |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=9781474286923 |access-date=2020-06-01 |archive-date=2021-05-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511080439/https://books.google.com/books?id=DkTqDAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }} The author has made adapted and expanded portions of this book available online as [http://rictornorton.co.uk/extracts.htm A Critique of Social Constructionism and Postmodern Queer Theory] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330132639/http://rictornorton.co.uk/extracts.htm |date=2019-03-30 }}.{{cite book |last=Boswell |first=John |chapter=Revolutions, Universals, and Sexual Categories |editor1-last=Duberman |editor1-first=Martin Bauml |editor2-last=Vicinus |editor2-first=Martha |editor3-last=Chauncey |editor3-first=George Jr. |date=1989 |title=Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past |publisher=Penguin Books |pages=17–36 |s2cid=34904667 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190304002205/http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d1f4/b4d6d8a37a3470c63ae83bf0d4a5101b08ce.pdf |archive-date=2019-03-04 |chapter-url=http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d1f4/b4d6d8a37a3470c63ae83bf0d4a5101b08ce.pdf}}

In his Symposium, the ancient Greek philosopher Plato described (through the character of the profane comedian Aristophanes) three sexual orientations – heterosexuality, male homosexuality, and female homosexuality – and provided explanations for their existence using an invented creation myth.[http://www.glbtq.com/literature/classical_myth,6.html Classical Myth] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050405231533/http://www.glbtq.com/literature/classical_myth%2C6.html |date=2005-04-05 }} on glbtq.com

{{Main|Tribadism}}

Although this term refers to a specific sex act between women today, in the past it was commonly used to describe female-female sexual love in general, and women who had sex with women were called Tribads or Tribades. As author Rictor Norton explains:

The tribas, lesbian, from Greek {{Lang|grc-latn|tribein}}, to rub (i.e. rubbing the pudenda together, or clitoris upon pubic bone, etc.), appears in Greek and Latin satires from the late first century. The tribade was the most common (vulgar) lesbian in European texts for many centuries. 'Tribade' occurs in English texts from at least as early as 1601 to at least as late as the mid-nineteenth century before it became self-consciously old-fashioned—it was in current use for nearly three centuries.{{cite web|author=Rictor Norton |title=A Critique of Social Constructionism and Postmodern Queer Theory, "The 'Sodomite' and the 'Lesbian' |publisher=infopt.demon.co.uk |date=July 12, 2002 |access-date=July 30, 2011 |url=http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/social22.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080215084530/http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/social22.htm |archive-date=February 15, 2008 |author-link=Rictor Norton }}

Fricatrice, a synonym for tribade that also refers to rubbing but has a Latin rather than a Greek root, appeared in English as early as 1605 (in Ben Jonson's Volpone). Its usage suggests that it was more colloquial and more pejorative than tribade. Variants include the Latinized confricatrice and English rubster.{{cite book |last=Andreadis |first=Harriette |title=Sappho in Early Modern England: Female Same-Sex Literary Erotics, 1550–1714 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2001 |pages=41, 49–51 |isbn=0-226-02009-6}}

{{Main|Sodomy}}

Though sodomy has been used to refer to a range of homosexual and heterosexual "unnatural acts", the term sodomite usually refers to a homosexual male even though the real meaning is of unreproductive sex.Albert Barnes' Notes on the BibleVincent's Word Studies The term is derived from the Biblical tale of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Christian churches have referred to the {{Lang|la|crimen sodomitae}} (crime of the Sodomites) for centuries. The modern association with homosexuality can be found as early as AD 96 in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus. In the early 5th century, Jerome, a priest, historian, and theologian used the forms Sodoman, in Sodomis, Sodomorum, Sodomæ, Sodomitæ.Hallam 1993 The modern German word {{Lang|de|Sodomie}} and the Norwegian {{Lang|no|sodomi}} also refer to bestiality.{{Cite web |title=Duden {{!}} Sodomie {{!}} Rechtschreibung, Bedeutung, Definition, Herkunft |url=https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Sodomie |access-date=2022-05-31 |website=www.duden.de |language=de}}{{Cite web |title=Ordbøkene.no - Bokmålsordboka og Nynorskordboka |url=https://ordbokene.no/bm,nn/ordbokene.no |access-date=2022-05-31 |website=ordbokene.no |language=no}}

Sodomy in historical biblical reference may not pertain to the acts of homosexuality, but the acts of bestiality and female and male castration for the purpose of sexual slavery.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

{{Main|Lesbian}}

Lesbian writer Emma Donoghue found that the term lesbian (with its modern meaning) has been in use in the English language from at least the 18th century. The 1732 epic poem by William King, The Toast, uses "lesbian loves" and "tribadism" interchangeably: "she loved Women in the same Manner as Men love them; she was a Tribad".{{Cite journal|last=Trumbach|first=Randolph|date=1994|editor-last=De Jean|editor-first=Joan|editor2-last=Dekker|editor2-first=Rudolf M.|editor3-last=van de Pol|editor3-first=Lotte C.|editor4-last=Dugaw|editor4-first=Dianne|editor5-last=Faderman|editor5-first=Lillian|editor6-last=Kennedy|editor6-first=Elizabeth Lapovsky|editor7-last=Davis|editor7-first=Madeline D.|editor8-last=Lewin|editor8-first=Ellen|editor9-last=Newton|editor9-first=Esther|title=The Origin and Development of the Modern Lesbian Role in the Western Gender System: Northwestern Europe and the United States, 1750-1990|journal=Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques|volume=20|issue=2|pages=287–320|issn=0315-7997|jstor=41298998}}

{{Main|Sapphism}}

Named after the female Greek poet Sappho who lived on Lesbos Island and wrote love poems to women, this term has been in use since at least the 18th century, with the connotation of lesbian. In 1773, a London magazine described sex between women as "Sapphic passion".{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kcNGAAAAcAAJ|title=Anonymous (1773),The Covent Garden Magazine Or the Amorous Repository, Vol.2, London, p.226|year=1773|language=en|access-date=2019-10-16|archive-date=2022-03-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220309214902/https://books.google.com/books?id=kcNGAAAAcAAJ|url-status=live}} The adjective form Sapphic is sometimes used nowadays as an inclusive umbrella term that expresses the sexuality and romantic attraction of queer women, including bisexuals, nonbinary, and trans people{{Cite web |date=2022-04-27 |title=What Does It Mean to Be Sapphic? |url=https://www.them.us/story/what-does-sapphic-mean |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=them. |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Sapphic - What is it? What does it mean? |url=https://taimi.com/wiki/sapphic-what-is-it-what-does-it-mean |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=Taimi |date=3 December 2021 |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2021-06-26 |title=Identidade sáfica: como uma poeta nascida há 2 mil anos virou referência nos estudos de gênero |url=https://oglobo.globo.com/cultura/identidade-safica-como-uma-poeta-nascida-ha-2-mil-anos-virou-referencia-nos-estudos-de-genero-25078464 |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=O Globo |language=pt-BR}}{{Cite web |title=Sapphic - What Does Sapphic Mean? |url=https://www.sapphicvisibilityday.com/sapphic-definitionn |access-date=2024-03-23 |language=en}} However, this is not accepted by all women who identify as lesbian.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

{{Main|Pederasty}}

Today, pederasty refers to male attraction towards adolescent boys,Based on the OED definition: "A man who has or desires sexual relations with a boy." or the cultural institutions that support such relations, as in ancient Greece.{{Cite web |date=December 3, 2017 |title=Ancient Greek Pederasty: Education or Exploitation? |url=https://stmuscholars.org/ancient-greek-pederasty-education-or-exploitation/ |publisher=StMU Research Scholars}} However, in the 18th and 19th centuries, the word usually referred to male homosexuality in general.{{citation needed|date=February 2015}} A pederast was also the active partner in anal sex, whether with a male or a female partner.{{citation needed|date=February 2015}} This relationship is socially frowned upon in modern cultures while legally defined by the age of consent.

{{Main|Homosexuality}}

File:Homosexual.jpg coined the word homosexual in this 1868 letter.]]

The word homosexual translates literally as "of the same sex", being a hybrid of the Greek prefix {{Lang|grc-latn|homo-}} meaning 'same' (as distinguished from the Latin root {{Lang|la|homo}} meaning 'human') and the Latin root {{Lang|la|sex}} meaning 'sex'.

The first known public appearance of the term homosexual in print is found in an 1869 German pamphlet {{Lang|de|143 des Preussischen Strafgesetzbuchs und seine Aufrechterhaltung als 152 des Entwurfs eines Strafgesetzbuchs für den Norddeutschen Bund}} ("Paragraph 143 of the Prussian Penal Code and Its Maintenance as Paragraph 152 of the Draft of a Penal Code for the North German Confederation"). The pamphlet was written by Karl-Maria Kertbeny, but published anonymously. It advocated the repeal of Prussia's sodomy laws.Bullough et al. ed. (1996) Kertbeny had previously used the word in a private letter written in 1868 to Karl Heinrich Ulrichs. Kertbeny used {{Lang|de|Homosexualität}} (in English, 'homosexuality') in place of Ulrichs' {{Lang|de|Urningtum}}; {{Lang|de|Homosexualisten}} ('male homosexualists') instead of {{Lang|de|Urninge}}, and {{Lang|de|Homosexualistinnen}} ('female homosexualists') instead of {{Lang|de|Urninden}}.

The term was coined and originally used primarily by German psychiatrists and psychologists. Havelock Ellis in his 1901 Studies in the Psychology of Sex wrote about the evolving terminology in the area, which ended up settling on homosexuality. In the preface to the first edition (1900), Ellis calls it sexual inversion, and volume 2 of the book is titled "Sexual Inversion". In the preface to the third edition (1927) Ellis referred to it as "the study of homosexuality". On the first page of chapter 1, he discusses the terminology, naming Ulrichs' use of {{Lang|de|Uranian}} ({{langx|de|Uranier}}) from 1862, which later morphed into {{lang|de|Urning}}, and using {{lang|de|Urningtum}} as the name of the condition. Ellis reported that the first accepted scientific term was contrary sexual feeling ({{lang|de|Konträre Sexualempfindung}}), coined by Westphal in 1869, and used by Krafft-Ebing and others. This term was never used outside Germany, and soon went out of favor even there. The term homosexuality was invented by Kertbeny in the same year (1869) but attracted no attention for some time, later achieving prominence, and was easily translatable into many languages, including by Hirschfeld in his 1914 book Die Homosexualität des Mannes und des Weibes, one of the top authorities in the field. Ellis continued to use both the terms sexual inversion and homosexuality in the 3rd edition, with slightly different meanings.{{cite book |last=Ellis |first=Havelock |author-link=Havelock Ellis |title=Studies in the Psychology of Sex |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13611 |chapter=Chapter I.—Introduction |chapter-url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13611/13611-h/13611-h.htm#2_CHAPTER_I |volume=II Sexual Inversion |edition=3rd, revised and enlarged |publisher=F.A. Davis |location=Philadelphia |date=1927 |orig-year=1900 |oclc=786194611 |pages=1–4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191206131119/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13611/13611-h/13611-h.htm |archive-date=2019-12-06 }}

The first known use of homosexual in English is in Charles Gilbert Chaddock's 1892 translation of Richard von Krafft-Ebing's {{Lang|la|Psychopathia Sexualis}}, a study on sexual practices.David Halperin, One Hundred Years of Homosexuality, Routledge, 1990, page 15 The term was popularized by the 1906 Harden–Eulenburg Affair.

The word homosexual itself had different connotations 100 years ago than today. Although some early writers used the adjective homosexual to refer to any single-gender context (such as an all-girls school),{{citation needed|date=February 2015}} today the term implies a sexual aspect. The term homosocial is now used to describe single-sex contexts that are not of a romantic or sexual nature.Merl Storr, Latex and Lingerie (2003) pp. 39–40

The colloquial abbreviation homo for homosexual is a coinage of the interbellum period, first recorded as a noun in 1929, and as an adjective in 1933.OED, "homo, n.² and a." Today, it is often considered a derogatory epithet.Wolinsky and Sherrill (eds.), Gays and the military: Joseph Steffan versus the United States, Princeton University Press, 1993, {{ISBN|978-0-691-01944-4}}, pp. 49–55.

• Antipathic sexual instinct: deviant sexual behavior outlined in Richard von Krafft-Ebing's Pychopathia SexualisUsed by Richard von Krafft-Ebing in "Psychopathia Sexualis, with Special Reference to the Antipathic Sexual Instinct: A Medico-Forensic Study", 1886.
• Sexual inversionUsed by Krafft-Ebing and also Havelock Ellis and John Addington Symonds in "Sexual Inversion", 1897. Popularised by Radclyffe Hall's use of it in her novel The Well of Loneliness.
• Psychosexual hermaphroditism: bisexuality. It was believed gay men desired a female body and lesbians desired a male body. Bisexuals desired to become intersex.Used by Krafft-Ebing and later Ellis to mean bisexuality, as opposed to complete inversion (exclusive homosexuality). Freud uses the term in "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" (1905) to refer to male homosexuality.
• The intermediate sex: similar to sexual inversion, Edward Carpenter believed gay men possessed a male body and a female temperament and vice versa for lesbiansUsed by Edward Carpenter in "The Intermediate Sex", 1908
• Similisexualism, simulsexuality{{cite web|title=simulsexual - Dictionary of sexual terms|url=http://www.sex-lexis.com/-dictionary/simulsexual|access-date=2022-01-08|website=www.sex-lexis.com|archive-date=2022-01-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220108200518/http://www.sex-lexis.com/-dictionary/simulsexual|url-status=live}} or similsexualism: homosexualityUsed by Edward Irenaeus Prime-Stevenson [writing as Xavier Mayne] in "The Intersexes: A History of Similisexualism as a Problem in Social Life", 1908.
• IntersexualityUsed around 1900 as a synonym for "inversion"; the term now has a different meaning—see intersexuality.{{citation needed|date=November 2017}}
• Catamite{{cite book |last1=Gifford |title=Dayneford's Library American Homosexual Writing, 1900-1913 |year=1995 |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |isbn=0-87023-993-7 |page=3}}
• Invert
• Third sex

{{distinguish|Homophily|Hemophile}}

Coined by the German astrologist, author and psychoanalyst Karl-Günther Heimsoth in his 1924 doctoral dissertation {{lang|de|Hetero- und Homophilie}}, the term was in common use in the 1950s and 1960s by homosexual organizations and publications; the groups of this period are now known collectively as the homophile movement.{{Cite book |url=https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230355002 |title=Male Homosexuality in West Germany — Between Persecution and Freedom, 1945–69 |author=Clayton Whisnant |year=2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |doi=10.1057/9781137028341 |isbn=978-1-349-34681-3 |language=en |access-date=2021-12-10 |archive-date=2019-11-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191106100210/https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230355002 |url-status=live }} Popular in the 1950s and 1960s (and still in occasional use in the 1990s, particularly in writing by Anglican clergy),Issues in Human Sexuality: A Statement by the House of Bishops of the General Synod of the Church of England, December 1991 (London: Church House Publishing, 1991). {{cite web|url=http://www.btinternet.com/~j.p.richardson/issues.html|title=Annotated Notes on Issues in Human Sexuality|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201223227/http://www.btinternet.com/~j.p.richardson/issues.html|archive-date=1 December 2008}} the term homophile was an attempt to avoid the clinical implications of sexual pathology found with the word homosexual, emphasizing love (-phile) instead.{{Cite journal|last=MD|first=Reidar Kjær|date=2003-02-25|title=Look to Norway? Gay Issues and Mental Health Across the Atlantic Ocean|journal=Journal of Gay & Lesbian Psychotherapy|volume=7|issue=1–2|pages=55–73|doi=10.1300/J236v07n01_05|s2cid=142840589|issn=0891-7140}} The first element of the word, the Greek root homo-, means 'same'; it is unrelated to Latin {{Lang|la|homo}}, 'person'. In almost all languages where the words homophile and homosexual were both in use (i.e., their cognate equivalents: German {{lang|de|Homophil}} and {{lang|de|Homosexuell}}, Italian {{lang|it|omofilo}} and {{lang|it|omosessuale}}, etc.), homosexual won out as the modern conventional neutral term. However, in Norway, the Netherlands and the Flemish/Dutch part of Belgium, the term is still widely used."Homofili", from [http://nn.wikipedia.org Norsk (nynorsk) Wikipedia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724110427/http://nn.wikipedia.org/ |date=2008-07-24 }}, entry retrieved 2012-06-19. Original text: "I den grad «homophile» hadde fått noko gjennomslag i engelsk og amerikansk, overtok «homosexual», «gay» og «lesbian» denne plassen frå slutten av 1960-talet. «Homofili» blei første gong nytta på norsk i ein brosjyre av den norske avdelinga av det danske «Forbundet af 1948» i 1951. Noreg er eit av dei få (det einaste?) landet der dette omgrepet framleis har stor utbreiing."

Not all terms have been used to describe same-gender sexuality are synonyms for the modern term homosexuality. Anna Rüling,{{Cite book|last=Rowold|first=Katharina|title=The Educated Woman: Minds, Bodies, and Women's Higher Education in Britain|publisher=Routledge|year=1865–1914|isbn=1-134-62584-7|location=Germany and Spain|language=en}} one of the first women to publicly defend gay rights, considered gay people a third gender, different from both men and women. Terms such as gynephilia and androphilia have tried to simplify the language of sexual orientation by making no claim about the individual's own gender identity. However, they are not commonly used.

Side{{cite web|title=Side Guys: Thinking Beyond Gay Male "Tops" and "Bottoms" {{!}} Psychology Today|url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/understanding-the-erotic-code/202005/side-guys-thinking-beyond-gay-male-tops-and-bottoms|access-date=2021-10-27|website=www.psychologytoday.com|language=en|archive-date=2022-03-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220309214912/https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/understanding-the-erotic-code/202005/side-guys-thinking-beyond-gay-male-tops-and-bottoms|url-status=live}} describes someone who does not practice anal sex and therefore does not define himself as top, bottom or versatile.

This term is sometimes used in American literature{{cite web|date=2019-05-09|title=Meet The 'Sides,' Gay Men Who Don't Like Anal Sex|url=https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/meet-the-sides-gay-men-who-dont-like-anal-sex|access-date=2021-10-27|website=MEL Magazine|language=en-US|archive-date=2021-10-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211026235711/https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/meet-the-sides-gay-men-who-dont-like-anal-sex|url-status=live}} to present an alternative to the binary classification which notes the preferred sexual position, such as top or bottom; the term side indicates one's affinity for neither of this binary classification.{{cite web|last=Kort|first=Joe|date=2013-04-16|title=Guys On The 'Side': Looking Beyond Gay Tops And Bottoms|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/guys-on-the-side-looking-beyond-gay-tops-and-bottoms_b_3082484|url-status=live|access-date=2021-10-27|website=HuffPost|language=en|archive-date=2021-10-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211026234211/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/guys-on-the-side-looking-beyond-gay-tops-and-bottoms_b_3082484}}

There are established languages of slang (sometimes known as cants) such as Polari in Britain, Swardspeak in the Philippines, Bahasa Binan in Indonesia, Lubunca in Turkey, and Kaliardá ({{Lang|el|Καλιαρντά}}) in Greece.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

A variety of LGBT slang terms have been used historically and contemporarily within the LGBT community.

In addition to the stigma surrounding homosexuality, terms have been influenced by taboos around sex in general, producing a number of euphemisms. A gay person may be described as "that way", "a bit funny", "light in his loafers", "on the bus", "batting for the other team", "a friend of Dorothy", "women who wear comfortable shoes" (lesbians), although such euphemisms are becoming less common as homosexuality becomes more visible.{{citation needed|date=February 2015}}

Harry Hay frequently stated that, in the 1930s–1940s, gay people referred to themselves as temperamental.{{cite web|url=http://progressive.org/mag_cusachay|title=Harry Hay Interview - The Progressive|work=progressive.org|date=2016-08-09|access-date=2014-06-07|archive-date=2009-05-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090519203033/http://progressive.org/mag_cusachay|url-status=live}}

Although the word was originally synonymous with happy or cheerful, in the 20th century it gradually came to designate someone who is romantically or sexually attracted to someone of the same gender or sex.{{Cite web |title=gay |url=https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=gay |website=Online Etymology Dictionary}}

• Terminology of transgender anatomy

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

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• {{Cite book |last1=Dynes |first1=Wayne R. |year=1990 |title=Encyclopedia of homosexuality, Volume 1 |first2=Warren |last2=Johansson |first3=William A. |last3=Percy |first4=Stephen |last4=Donaldson |publisher=Garland Pub. |isbn=978-0-8240-6544-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TYyGAAAAIAAJ }}
• {{Cite book |last=Green |first=Jonathon |year=2005 |title=Cassell's dictionary of slang |edition=2 |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |isbn=978-0-304-36636-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5GpLcC4a5fAC }}
• {{Cite book |last1=Marks |first1=Georgette A. |year=1984 |title=Harrap's Slang dictionary: English-French/French-English |first2=Charles Benjamin |last2=Johnson |first3=Jane |last3=Pratt |publisher=Harrap |isbn=978-0-245-54047-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/harrapsslangdict00mark |url-access=registration }}
• {{Cite book |last1=Partridge |first1=Eric |year=2006 |title=The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English: J-Z |first2=Tom |last2=Dalzell |first3=Terry |last3=Victor |edition=reprint |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-25938-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mAdUqLrKw4YC }}
• {{Cite book |last1=Schemann |first1=Hans |year=1995 |title=German-English dictionary of idioms |first2=Paul |last2=Knight |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-14199-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gHBoka_Rt5kC }}

{{Wiktionary|gay#Etymology_1|androphilia|gynephilia|homophile|homosexual|pederast|sapphism|lesbian|sodomite|tribadism}}

{{Wiktionary|heterosexual|gay|lesbian|bisexual}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20091027052937/http://de.geocities.com/gayphrases1/index.html "Gay Language Guide"] – gay slang in various languages: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Japanese, Hungarian, Russian, Thai
• [http://www.lyn.lowenstein.eu/projects/homo/euphemism.htm "The Homophobic Alphabet Euphemism Collection"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100131060844/http://www.lyn.lowenstein.eu/projects/homo/euphemism.htm |date=2010-01-31 }}: an ongoing collection of euphemisms for gay men and lesbians.
• [http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/diction.htm Homosexual Terms in 18th-century Dictionaries] – catamite, madge, indorser, windward passage, and more

{{LGBTQ}}

Category:Homosexuality

Category:LGBTQ linguistics

Category:Sociolinguistics