homophilicadj.
/ˌhəʊməˈfɪlɪk/, /ˌhɒməˈfɪlɪk/, U.S. /ˌhoʊməˈfɪlɪk/ 1. Relating to, involving, or characterized by sexual or romantic attraction to one's own sex. Of a person: sexually or romantically attracted to people of one's own sex. Cf. later homophile adj.Sometimes used as a synonym for homosexual (see homosexual adj.), but more often designating latent attraction to one's own sex, rather than active homosexuality.
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1918 H. W. Frink Morbid Fears & Compulsions i. 16 Some of the libido takes a homosexual direction, being applied (in the boy) to..other males in the family. This homophilic application..in infancy corresponds to the normal..attachments for one's own sex in the normal adult, and, in the abnormal, to the homosexual perversions.
1968 Jrnl. Sex Res. 4 97 I have seen many [homosexual men]..who have had heterosexual activity.., but who still remain basically homophilic.
1979 M. Kolbenschlag Kiss Sleeping Beauty Good-bye 53 Thus, the disproportionate fear, in same-sex relations, of allowing the relationship to become too personal, too homophilic.
1999 K. A. Appiah & H. L. Gates Africana 961/2 There have always been forms of homosexuality and homophilic activity (affectionate relations—not necessarily erotic—between people of the same sex) in African cultures.
2010 Chron. Higher Educ. (Nexis) 28 Nov. His [sc. Wagner's] practice of surrounding himself late in life with homophilic if not homosexual young men, whom he welcomed as idolators rather than as active sexual partners.
2.
a. Of or relating to the tendency of people to seek out or be drawn to those they perceive to be most like themselves; characterized by homophily (homophily n.2).
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1962 D. J. Levinson in Res. in Psychotherapy, Proc. Conf., Chapel Hill, N. Carolina, 1961 i. 23/1 We thus propose a ‘homophilic’ hypothesis; in selecting patients for psychotherapy, the therapist tends to prefer candidates who resemble him in social background, outlook, and personality.
1977 Sociol. of Educ. 50 227 Conformity pressures..and homophilic membership selection are identified as..sources of homogeneity in student friendship groups.
2017 Observer (Nexis) 29 Oct. (Tech Monthly Suppl.) Facebook provides a framework that contains innumerable homophilic groups. But it isn't a community in any meaningful sense of the word.
b. Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Physiology. Designating or involving bonding or attraction between molecules, atoms, etc., that are identical; spec. designating the binding of a receptor molecule to an identical receptor molecule. Also: designating molecules, etc., that bond or are attracted in this way.
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1964 L. Salem in B. Pullman Electronic Aspects Biochem. 298 The ‘hydrophobic bond’ appears therefore as the result of the large dispersion attraction between nonpolar groups and of the large electrostatic attraction between water molecules.., together with the weakness of polarization forces. The phraseology ‘homophilic bonding’, which indicates the tendency of like groups (polar or nonpolar) to stay together, is an alternative representation of the phenomenon.
1988 BioFactors 1 92/1 There is another set of cellular adhesion molecules, generally known as CAMs, which mediate ‘homophilic’ interactions between cells.
2012 S. B. Moffet Nerv. Syst. Regeneration in Invertebr. iv. 100 Antibodies to homophilic molecules can substitute for the homophilic interactions and activate second messenger systems.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1918