Sapphism
(ˈsæfɪz(ə)m)
[f. name of Sappho (see Sapphic), who was accused of this vice: see -ism.]
Homosexual relations between women.
| 1890 Billings Nat. Med. Dict. 1901 Lancet 1 June 1548/1 As yet in this country the novelist..has not arrived at the treatment in romance of excessive morphiomania, or Sapphism, or vaginismus, all of which diseases will be found in French novels. |
So ˈSapphist, ‘one addicted to sapphism’ (Webster's Suppl. 1902); saˈpphistically adv., in the manner of a Sapphist.
| 1913 R. Brooke Let. 13 Dec. (1968) 547 A woman..who loved Lulu sapphistically. 1923 V. Woolf Diary 19 Feb. (1978) II. 235 She is a pronounced Sapphist, & may..have an eye on me. 1925 [see pæderast]. 1975 ‘M. Orr’ Rich Girl, Poor Girl (1977) xviii. 247 Winifred knew herself to be..a Sapphist on the prowl for a desirable jeune fille. |