Lesbian

[lez-bee-uh n]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR Lesbian ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

of or relating to Lesbos.

(usually lowercase) of, relating to, or characteristic of female homosexuality.

(usually lowercase) erotic; sensual.

noun

an inhabitant of Lesbos.

(usually lowercase) a female homosexual.

Origin of Lesbian

1595–1605; < Latin Lesbi(us) Lesbian (< Greek Lésbios, equivalent to Lésb(os) Lesbos + -ios adj. suffix) + -an; (defs 2, 5) alluding to the poet Sappho of Lesbos, whose verse deals largely with her emotional relationships with other women

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for lesbian

homosexual, homoerotic, homophile, Sapphic

Examples from the Web for lesbian

Contemporary Examples of lesbian

It said: “Tonie Tobias, Information Technology, President of GLEN, Gay and Lesbian Employee Network.”
How A Company’s Support of Gay Employees Helped One of Them To Come Out
December 24, 2014
She told a story of a fellow employee who identifies as a butch dyke (a lesbian who takes on a more masculine identity).
The LGBT Center That Changed Our Lives
Justin Jones
December 22, 2014
And who better to do that with than the actress who is playing the object of said (alleged) lesbian affection in the flick?
Inside the Lifetime Whitney Houston Movie’s Lesbian Lover Storyline
Kevin Fallon
December 16, 2014
And as bad as it might be for gay or lesbian people, the discrimination is markedly worse for transgender people.
State of LGBT Rights: Married on Sunday, but Fired on Monday
Gene Robinson
December 14, 2014
Much more common is the African American lesbian couple in the Deep South raising children at or below the poverty line.
State of LGBT Rights: Married on Sunday, but Fired on Monday
Gene Robinson
December 14, 2014

Historical Examples of lesbian

It is called Lesbian love or saphism; and the women inverts are known as tribades.
The Sexual Question
August Forel
The style of carving of the cymatium with its astragal should be the Lesbian.
Ten Books on Architecture
Vitruvius
No; then of course she was the tenth—and was not she "the Lesbian maid?"
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 380, June, 1847
Various
"Even the Lesbian swan was called the fair-haired," replied Florus.
The Emperor, Complete
Georg Ebers
These years also constitute the golden age of Lesbian culture.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 16, Slice 4
Various

British Dictionary definitions for lesbian

lesbian

noun

a female homosexual

adjective

of or characteristic of lesbians

Derived Formslesbianism, noun

Word Origin for lesbian

C19: from the homosexuality attributed to Sappho

Lesbian

noun

a native or inhabitant of Lesbos

the Aeolic dialect of Ancient Greek spoken in Lesbos

adjective

of or relating to Lesbos

of or relating to the poetry of Lesbos, esp that of Sappho

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for lesbian

adj.

1590s, "pertaining to the island of Lesbos," from Latin Lesbius, from Greek lesbios "of Lesbos," Greek island in northeastern Aegean Sea (the name originally may have meant "wooded"), home of Sappho, great lyric poet whose erotic and romantic verse embraced women as well as men, hence meaning "relating to homosexual relations between women" (1890; lesbianism in this sense is attested from 1870) and the noun, first recorded 1925. Before this, the principal figurative use (common in 17c.) was lesbian rule (c.1600) a mason's rule of lead, of a type used on Lesbos, which could be bent to fit the curves of a molding; hence, "pliant morality or judgment."

And this is the nature of the equitable, a correction of law where it is defective owing to its universality. ... For when the thing is indefinite the rule also is indefinite, like the leaden rule used in making the Lesbian moulding; the rule adapts itself to the shape of the stone and is not rigid, and so too the decree is adapted to the facts. [Aristotle, "Nicomachean Ethics"]

Cf. also tribadism.

lesbian in Medicine