lesbian

• adj. [心理学的]レズビアン
• n. レズビアン

エーゲ海に浮かぶ古代ギリシャのレスボス島から。詩人サッフォーが多くの弟子たちとともにこの島に住み、女性同士の関係や愛についての詩を多く流したことにちなんで名づけられた。

lesbian

lesbian: [16] Originally, and for many centuries, Lesbian simply meant ‘of Lesbos’, referring to the Aegean island of that name, off the Turkish coast. Then, in the second half of the 19th century, probably some time before 1870, it embarked on a more sensational career. The lyric poet Sappho (c. 600 BC) lived on Lesbos, and she was noted for the love poems she wrote to other women. Her name was invoked directly (in Sapphism) around this time as a genteel literary allusion to female homosexuality, but it was the even more deeply euphemistic lesbian that went on to become the main English term in this area.

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. Her particular association in English with erotic love between women dates to at least 1825, though the words formed from it are later. 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"]

See also tribadism. Greek had a verb lesbiazein "to imitate the Lesbians," which implied "sexual initiative and shamelessness" among women, but not necessarily female homosexuality.

1. The gay and lesbian rights group，Stonewall，sees outing as completely unhelpful.

同性愛者権益組織「石垣」は同性愛者の身元を公開することは何の役にも立たないと考えている。

2.I 'm a lesbian and I 'm not ashamed about it.

私はレズビアンですが、私はそれを恥じていません。

3.Many of her best friends were lesbian .

彼女の親友の多くはレズビアンだった。

4.I came out as a lesbian when I was still in my teens.

私はまだ10代の頃、同性愛者であることを公表していました。

5.Who secretly wishes they were married to a hot,sexy lesbian ？

誰が密かに自分と結婚したいと思っているのはセクシーで怒りっぽいレズビアンですか？