lesbian

• adj. [心理] 女同性恋的
• n. 女同性恋者

来自古希腊爱琴海岛屿Lesbos，因女诗人Sappho与她的诸多学生居住于该岛，并且流传出许多关于女人之间的感情或爱情诗篇而得名。

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.

男女同性恋权益组织“石墙”认为公开揭露同性恋者身份毫无益处。

来自柯林斯例句

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

我是个女同性恋，但我并不为此感到羞耻。

来自柯林斯例句

3. Many of her best friends were lesbian.

她最要好的朋友中有很多都是女同性恋者。

来自柯林斯例句

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

我才十几岁的时候，就公开了自己的同性恋身份。

来自柯林斯例句

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

谁偷偷地希望与自己结婚的是一个性感惹火的女同性恋?

来自电影对白