sapphist
- noun
- /ˈsæfɪst/
- Archaic
:
safista
- The character in the novel was rumored to be a sapphist, which shocked some readers at the time.
Examples
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She found an old letter where a woman referred to herself as a proud sapphist.
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In Victorian literature, the word sapphist was sometimes used to describe women who loved women.
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The term sapphist is rarely used today.
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Many sapphists found solace in Sappho's poetry.
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In ancient Greece, Sapphists often expressed their love for each other through poetry.
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The novel beautifully depicts the lives of Sapphists in a society that struggles to accept them.
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Many artists have drawn inspiration from the experiences of Sapphists throughout history.
Surface Forms
Morphology
sapphist = Sappho (opaque) = Sappho + ist
The term derives from the name Sappho, but its specific association with lesbian love is not directly inferable from the components.
Etymology
Sapphist as a noun was once a literary or old-fashioned name taken from the poet Sappho of Lesbos, used to refer to a woman who loved other women. So, in older books a 'sapphist' simply meant a 'lesbian'.
