On 2013-08-25, rozeandi@gmail.com <rozeandi@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sunday, 12 April 2009 10:53:36 UTC+4:30, Thomas Hejl Pilgaard wrote:
>> 1. Is there a word for male sexuality than ends in -ism?
If you mean 'for male homosexuality', the answer is no.
>> Gayism doesn't seem to work.
>>
>> A friend of mine claims that it is in fact "homosexualism",
>> since homo means man (which I don't quite agree with), meaning
>> that homosexualism means sex among men,
"Homosexualism" (which isn't in the OED and which I've never heard or
seen in writing, but would nonetheless be a perfectly good word) would
probably mean "acting in a homosexual way" or "acting like a homosexual
(or homosexualist)". In practice, "homosexual" or "homosexuality" seem
to be found adequate.
,----
| homosexual, adj. and n.
| Pronunciation: /həʊməʊ-/ /hɒməʊˈsɛksjuːəl/
| Etymology: Irreg. < homo- comb. form + sexual adj. and n.
|
| A. adj.
|
| Involving, related to, or characterized by a sexual propensity for
| one's own sex; of or involving sexual activity with a member of one's
| own sex, or between individuals of the same sex.
`----
"homosexual, adj. and n.". OED Online. June 2013. Oxford University
Press. 25 August 2013
<http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/88110?redirectedFrom=homosexual>.
As a prefix, homo- means "the same as"; the opposite of "hetero- which
means "the other" or "different". Both these prefixes are from ancient
Greek.
>> and homo sapiens means the thinking man.
The word "homo" meaning "human being" as in "homo sapiens", "wise
person", is from Latin.
Common usage among English speakers does confuse matters, and calling
someone "homo" is usually meant, and taken, as an insult meaning
"homosexual".
>> So either there is no -ism word for male homosexuality, or there
>> is no common word for gayness and lesbianism... ?
The common term for both male and female homosexuality is "homosexual".
Or "queer" or "gay" or "invert" or several other terms.
"Lesbian" is usually used to mean "female homosexual"; it's a reference
to the island of Lesbos, home of the (female) classical Greek poet
Sappho whose poems are often interpreted as being erotic and addressed
from one woman to another.
"Gay" seems to be gaining the meaning of "male homosexual", but is still
in use for both too. It's also gaining usage as a noun, in addition to
being an adjective and adverb.
>> 2. Is there a common designation/name for words that end in -ism?
Not that I know of. -ism is usually "acting like" what an -ist "is",
and an -ist is someone "in a state or condition of" -ity.
>> ...The things you ponder at 3am...
Less cheese for supper. Or more.
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-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
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