LESBIAN
- noun & adj. : women who are primarily attracted romantically, erotically, and/or emotionally to other women. However, the term can also be used by non-binary individuals, especially those that are attracted to women or feel connected to womanhood
- The word “lesbian” literally means resident of the island Lesbos and became synonymous with women who like women in reference to the island’s most famous resident, Sappho, a female poet who wrote many love poems to other women around 600 BCE.
- The use of the term “lesbian” can be traced to sometime in the 1800s. Before that, the term “sapphic” was used to refer to women who liked other women.
- The word gained popularity as part of a movement in the late 1960s to differentiate themselves from gay men.