Lesbian
WordNet
adjective
(1) Of female homosexuality
noun
(2) A resident of Lesbos
(3) A female homosexual
WiktionaryText
Etymology
From + adjective suffix -an, from Latin adjective suffix -anus, -ana. The sense of ‘homosexual’ is a reference to Sappho, a famous Lesbian and lesbian poet.
Adjective
- Of or pertaining to the island of Lesbos.
- (used of women) Homosexual.
Usage notes
The senses of 'homosexual' are now not usually capitalized; see lesbian. However, compare this with the occasional capitalization of Gay.
Quotations
- [1901], 1985 Mary MacLane in A Day at a Time, Margo Culley ed. http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=AuSEUamWbu0C&pg=PA201&lpg=PA201&sig=Z9-5jaiECN2E7wfPovslRHvbbNc
- Except two breeds—the stupid and the narrowly feline—all women have a touch of the Lesbian: an assertion all good non-analytic creatures refute with horror, but quite true: there is always the poignant intensive personal taste, the flair of inner-sex, in the tenderest friendships of women.
- 1984, Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=GrPNpSSJrYYC&pg=PA132&lpg=PA132&sig=hfJS9AwzFIj86Ev0MSw76SJECck
- One woman wrote, “Because you are Black and Lesbian, you seem to speak with the moral authority of suffering.” Yes, I am Black and Lesbian, and what you hear in my voice is fury, not suffering.
- 1989, Florence King, Reflections in a Jaundiced Eye http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=dUgPxKzVq9AC&pg=PA95&lpg=PA95&sig=S6zgYpw5y_WwqtsoCEvYZdb6Bds
- Suddenly open enrollment struck the Sapphic elite and dykes-for-the-masses were everywhere. We got the Lesbian detective, the Lesbian ghost, the Lesbian vampire, the possessed Lesbian, the Lesbian next door, the Lesbian with a heart of gold, the kept Lesbian, the other Lesbian, the Lesbian amnesiac, the Lesbian with cancer, and just plain Butch.