sexualadj.n.
/ˈsɛkʃʊəl/, /ˈsɛkʃ(ᵿ)l/, /ˈsɛksjʊ(ə)l/, U.S. /ˈsɛkʃ(əw)əl/ A. adj.† 1. Characteristic of or peculiar to the female sex; feminine. Cf. sex n.1 3. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > sex and gender > [adjective] > restricted to or having characteristics of one sex only
sexual1815
unisexual1873
monosexual1904
sex-limited1910
unisex1917
sex-linked1932
1622 T. Adams Eirenopolis 124 That blessed Queene..who, as by her Sexuall graces shee deserued to bee the Queene of women, so by her masculine vertues to bee the Queen of men.
1779 W. Alexander Hist. Women I. 11 The sex might easily have discouraged, this, but they rather gave it countenance; and the consequence was, that all sexual decorum being nearly extinguished, the familiarity allowed to the men, in time, began to be productive of contempt.
1792 M. Wollstonecraft Vindic. Rights Woman ii. 59 A mistaken education, a narrow uncultivated mind, and many sexual prejudices, tend to make women more constant than men.
1815 Sporting Mag. 46 74 Her looks, her turns, her whole manner of speaking and acting is sexual.
1839 T. De Quincey Lake Reminisc. in Tait's Edinb. Mag. Apr. 252/1 To ingraft, by her sexual sense of beauty, upon his masculine austerity that delicacy [etc.].
2.
a. Of, relating to, or arising from the fact or condition of being either male or female; predicated on biological sex; (also) of, relating to, or arising from gender, orientation with regard to sex, or the social and cultural relations between the sexes.In quot. 1879: according to sex.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > sex and gender > [adjective]
sexed1605
sexlyc1628
sexual1650
sexuated1878
sexuate1882
gendered1945
1650 W. Charleton tr. J. B. van Helmont Ternary of Paradoxes (new ed.) 128 There was no sexual impress [L. nota sexualis] [in the soul itself], but onely in the cortex or shrine.
1651 N. Biggs Matæotechnia Medicinæ Praxeωs ⁋69 The same simple rotteth, and is changed into little animals, these are..of both sexes, which truly would not come to passe if those simples had already a sex or sexuall powers within them.
1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. Pref. vi. The Honor of having first suggested the true sexual Distinctions in Plants appears to be due to..Sir Thomas Millington.
1794 R. J. Sulivan View of Nature II. 222 One only single sexual pair of every species of living things.
1799 C. B. Brown Ormond xx. 234 The timidity that commonly attends women, gradually vanished. I felt as if embued by a soul that was a stranger to the sexual distinction.
1826 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. III. 316 Of all the organs of the head, none seem so little subject to sexual variation as the under-jaws.
1874 A. H. Sayce Princ. Compar. Philol. vii. 249 We may take, by way of illustration, the question of gender. What..was the source..of the sexual relation of nouns?
1877 T. H. Huxley Man. Anat. Invertebrated Animals ii. 81 These extremely simple organisms have not yet reached the stage of sexual differentiation.
1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. 9 719 The sexual distribution of this disease.
1899 N. Amer. Rev. June 723 The..succession of attacks made by distinguished women on the exaggerations of the feminine thesis..are not liable to suspicion as the outcome of sexual prejudice.
1946 Mod. Lang. Rev. 41 268 The attempt to erect an educational psychology on the notion of innate sexual qualities of mind she characterized as ‘so puerile as not to merit a serious refutation’.
1957 H. M. Hacker in Marriage & Family Living 19 232/1 Individuals who..feel inadequate in fulfilling their part of the sexual division of labor may become confused in their sexual identification.
1981 N. Tucker Child & Bk. vii. 212 Children's perceptions of their sexual roles are built up from many different sources.
1998 Cosmopolitan (U.K. ed.) Sept. 88/2 I don't like sexual stereotypes, but men just don't get shopping.
2006 Woman's Art Jrnl. 26 23 Her exposure of the social construction of sexual difference..challenged the traditional paradigm of analysis.
b. Biology. Of an animal, plant, or other organism: characterized by sex; sexed, sexuate; capable of sexual reproduction; having distinct male and female reproductive organs, often (though not necessarily) in separate individuals. Opposed to asexual.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > reproductive part(s) > [adjective]
femalea1398
sexiferous1819
sexual1830
sexed1877
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > types of reproduction > [adjective] > sexual > reproducing sexually
sexual1830
sexed1877
1830 J. Lindley Introd. Nat. Syst. Bot. Introd. 18 Plants are naturally and primarily divided into two great divisions, called Sexual and Asexual.
1861 R. T. Hulme tr. C. H. Moquin-Tandon Elements Med. Zool. ii. vii. 329 The Linguatulæ are at first asexual... They pass..into the bodies of the carnivora.., where they complete their development, and become sexual.
1880 C. E. Bessey Bot. 361 They [sc. vascular cryptogams] present an alternation of sexual and asexual generations.
1882 S. H. Vines tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. (ed. 2) 273 It is only towards the close of the period of growth that sexual individuals make their appearance.
1917 H. W. Conn Bacteria, Yeasts, & Molds in Home (rev. ed.) xv. 216 (caption) Malarial organism... The crescent bodies become the sexual bodies..which develop in the mosquito.
1940 Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 23 8 The gametophyte is a sexual plant in that it bears..antheridia and archegonia which produce respectively sperms and eggs.
1994 K. Maxwell Sex Imperative vi. 93 There was a progressive decrease in fecundity in succeeding asexual generations of the aphids until the final, sexual form was produced.
3.
a. Designating those organs or anatomical structures concerned in sexual reproduction or (esp.) in sexual intercourse, as sexual organ (often in plural), sexual parts.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > sex organs > [noun]
shapea1000
shameOE
i-cundeOE
memberc1300
privy memberc1325
kindc1330
privitiesc1375
harness1382
shameful parts1382
genitoriesa1387
partc1390
tailc1390
genitalsa1393
thingc1405
genitalc1450
privy parts1533
secret1535
loin?1541
genitures1548
filthy parts1553
shamefulness1561
ware1561
meatc1564
natural places1569
secret members1577
lady ware1592
natural parts1601
lady's ware1608
gear1611
private parts1623
groin1631
pudendums1634
natural1650
privacies1656
sex1664
secrecyc1675
nudities1677
affair1749
sexual parts1753
person1824
sex organ1847
privates1940
naughty bits1972
the world > plants > part of plant > reproductive part(s) > [noun]
sexual organ1753
fructification1764
disseminule1904
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > types of reproduction > [noun] > sexual > sexual organs
sexual organ1753
1753 Ess. Celibacy 53 Leachery is really such a monster, as..to be no less than a strong inclination to transform the whole bodily frame into sexual organs, and employ them in one continued act of lewdness and debauchery.
1757 J. H. Grose Voy. E.-Indies ii. 35 The common people have no cloathing but a piece of coarse wrapper, which goes round their loins, and often barely covers their sexual parts.
1772 C. Milne Inst. Bot. ii. 203 This separation and this union of the sexual organs of plants offers nothing contrary to what is observed in animals.
1797 J. Stackhouse Nereis Britannica (1801) ii. p. vi In plants whose sexual parts were so small as to elude even microscopic observation unless with compound magnifiers, [etc.].
1828 J. Stark Elements Nat. Hist. II. 407 Worms..with..the sexual organs separate.
1884 Amer. Naturalist 18 779 The same portion of primary tissue develops into one sexual organ in one of the sexes and into a different organ in the other sex.
1915 Man 15 115 He was naked, but the sexual organ was covered with an apron of palm leaves.
1928 L. T. Trolfand Fund. Human Motivation vii. 117 The preliminary stages of erection, or tumescence, in both male and female, depend mainly upon vasomotor reflexes which result naturally from irritation of the sexual parts.
1965 Taxon 14 258 They [sc. bryophytes] have..a female sexual organ called archegonium.
1990 D. Bolger Journey Home (1991) i. 25 Between them Shay sat, egging them on as they mocked the size of each other's sexual parts.
2003 Science 19 Dec. 2050/1 Each year, a few babies are born with a male set of chromosomes and female sexual organs.
b. Relating to or affecting the genitals or reproductive organs.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > sex organs > [adjective]
privyc1325
pudendal1772
pudical1787
pudic1795
sexual1825
copulatory1836
copulative1855
primary1871
perigenital1953
1825 Zool. Jrnl. 1 405 These three states of genital products require three distinct situations, which in the normal mammifera are found within the sexual canal.
1836–9 Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. II. 695/1 In attempting to determine the true sex in such doubtful instances of sexual formation.
1859 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 7 222/2 Apparatus, for curing..sexual diseases.
1888 Amer. Naturalist 22 278 The genital sacks are laid bare by a longitudinal slit in the body-wall, opposite the sexual aperture.
1940 K. Young Personality & Probl. of Adjustm. 32 The sexual glands produce not only the necessary cells for reproduction..but also important hormones.
2006 Company Nov. 71/3 HPV is very contagious, and is spread during any form of sexual or skin-to-skin contact.
4.
a. Relating to, tending towards, or involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of intimate physical contact.
ΚΠ
1753 Ess. Celibacy 101 Sexual commerce is natural, and, when it is the consequence of marriage, virtuous.
1800 W. Wordsworth in W. Wordsworth & S. T. Coleridge Lyrical Ballads (ed. 2) I. p. xxxii From this principle the direction of the sexual appetite, and all the passions connected with it take their origin.
1861 R. W. Emerson Society & Solitude in Wks. (1906) III. 133 To insure the existence of the race, she [sc. Nature] reinforces the sexual instinct.
1872 R. Ludlam Lect. Dis. Women 265 A sexual orgasm..may be followed by a severe attack of this peculiar form of headache.
1876 J. S. Bristowe Treat. Theory & Pract. Med. ii. ii. 326 It [sc. acne] has a special connection with the period of development and maturation of the sexual functions.
1880 C. E. Bessey Bot. 206 Whether the sexual act occurs or not [in Protophytes] is somewhat doubtful.
1897 H. Ellis & J. A. Symonds Sexual Inversion 117 The sexual relationship rarely goes beyond close physical contact, or at most mutual masturbation.
1974 H. R. F. Keating Underside xi. 108 She must know..that men had sexual urges, that they could not live without any sexual experience of any sort.
1980 D. Newsome On Edge of Paradise 382 He had no sexual life; all his sexual instincts had to be sublimated.
2007 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 10 June xiii. 6/3 Reports of sexual behavior while asleep have become so common that experts have released a classification system.
b. Of or relating to sexuality as a social or cultural phenomenon; regarding sexual conduct.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > [adjective]
fleshlyc900
carnala1500
physical1778
sexual1809
pandemian1818
pandemica1822
sexful1894
sexy1923
bedroom1924
1809 R. Tyler Yankey in London 162 The Italians [are characterized] as effeminate, jealous, and lost to every sense of sexual virtue.
1840 T. De Quincey Style in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. July 7/1 The interesting class of women unmarried upon scruples of sexual honour.
1852 R. Browning Introd. Ess. in P. B. Shelley Lett. 34 Mistaking Churchdom for Christianity, and for marriage, ‘the sale of love’ and the law of sexual oppression.
1911 Contemp. Rev. Sept. 383 Berlin is outbidding Paris in its sexual immorality.
1934 A. Huxley Beyond Mexique Bay 44 Places where people..obey other sexual taboos.
1968 A. Diment Bang Bang Birds ii. vi. 81 You'd think his life work was spreading American sexual mores around the world.
1975 G. Howell In Vogue 62 The sexual education of the jazz age.
1986 S. Churcher N.Y. Confid. ix. 223 Yes, sexual liberation lives.
2003 L. Peirce Morality Tales 372 A more serious community dispute over rules of sexual propriety.
c. Characterized by sexual instincts or feelings, or the capacity for these; possessing or displaying sexuality.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual desire > [adjective]
sensual?a1425
Venerian1448
venereal?a1475
venerial1531
venereous1542
venerious1542
venerous1562
Venerean1575
veneral1591
warm1593
fantastical1594
sexual1839
thermal1866
satyrish1876
Wife of Bath1926
1839 G. Dennis Summer in Andalucia II. xvi. 403 From the cradle she seems to suck in the idea, that she is a sexual being; and the little miss not yet in her teens..coquets with her little beau.
1898 Amer. Anthropologist 11 234 Among all lowest hunting savages..the woman is not merely a sexual being.
1916 B. M. Hinkle tr. C. G. Jung Psychol. Unconscious ii. viii. 459 The incest prohibition places an end to the childish longing for the food-giving mother, and compels the libido, gradually becoming sexual, into the path of the biological aim.
1959 W. L. Warner Living & Dead xi. 364 The moral life of man as a sexual creature is a constant struggle between the spirit and the flesh.
2005 Elle Girl (U.K. ed.) Feb. 14/3 She's way more overtly sexual than me... I'd be scared of having her voluptuousness.
5. Biology. Of reproduction in animals, plants, and other organisms: taking place by means of a physical connection or fusion between two cells (usually distinct male and female reproductive cells or gametes) and the recombination of their genetic material to produce a new cell with a genotype containing elements from each. Esp. in sexual reproduction. Opposed to asexual or agamic.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > types of reproduction > [adjective] > sexual
sexual1794
gamic1858
gamogenetic1858
syngenetic1864
digenous1884
sexuparous1899
androgenetic1903
gynogenetic1925
1794 E. Darwin Zoonomia I. xxxix. 514 Many flying insects..seem to undergo a general change of their forms solely for the purpose of sexual reproduction.
1800 E. Darwin Phytologia i. 7 It [sc. a bud] contains the rudiments of organs adapted to lateral generation or the production of new buds; or to sexual propagation and the consequent production of seeds.
1872 H. C. Wood Contrib. Hist. Freshwater Algæ 100 The propagation is both sexual and non-sexual.
1882 S. H. Vines tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. (ed. 2) 251 Conjugation is the simplest form of sexual reproduction.
1889 A. W. Bennett & G. R. M. Murray Handbk. Cryptogamic Bot. 272 The only known sexual mode of reproduction [in the Confervoideae] is an isogamous one between two masses of protoplasm.
a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) I. i. 11 Sexual multiplication by means of special germ-cells or sex-cells is much more economical.
1953 R. W. Fairbrother Text-bk. Bacteriol. (ed. 7) ii. 11 The fungi and moulds are multicellular and possess a sexual phase of reproduction.
1978 Fortune (Nexis) 19 June 100 The trouble with sexual reproduction, from a cloner's viewpoint, is that it involves a genetic reshuffle, producing offspring that are not an exact match of either parent.
2006 Nature 2 Mar. p. xi The origin and persistence of sexual reproduction in living organisms remains one of the deepest mysteries of biology.
B. n.
Biology. An organism which is capable of sexual reproduction; a sexuale or sexual form (usually as contrasted with an asexual, parthenogenetic, or vegetative form).
ΚΠ
1919 Lancet 10 May 783/2 (table) Type of infection... P[lasmodium] falciparum. Asexual parasites numerous in the blood. No sexuals.
1939 Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 26 105/2 A greater number of successful combinations are possible among apomicts than among sexuals because their F1 hybrids..circumvent the exacting test of sexual reproduction.
1977 O. W. Richards & R. G. Davies Imms's Gen. Textbk. Entomol. (ed. 10) II. 722 Suppression of sexuals can..occur in holocyclic species.
2004 Nature 4 Mar. 35/1 Social parasite queens exploit the resources and workers of a host colony to produce reproductive offspring (sexuals) without investing in a large worker force of their own.
Compounds
C1. With the sense ‘relating to biological sex or gender’.
sexual cell n. now chiefly Botany a reproductive cell or gamete which is either male or female.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > reproductive substances or cells > [noun] > reproductive cell
sexual cell1860
oocyst1875
thelyblast1877
sex cell1889
1860 T. Laycock Mind & Brain II. 207 The male sexual cells are termed antherozoids in plants, and spermatozoa in animals.
1936 W. Seifriz Protoplasm ii. 40 Most of the lower plants (algae, mosses, ferns, etc.) have motile (swimming) male sexual cells.
1952 F. L. Wynd tr. E. A. Gäumann Fungi 60 Copulation therefore does not occur between true sexual cells, but between the gametangia.
2004 D. R. Wallace Beasts of Eden viii. 95 Weismann concluded that the sexual cells that transmit inheritance are isolated from the rest of the body, and that only changes in the former could be inherited.
sexual character n. (usually in plural) any feature that is characteristic of or peculiar to one sex or the other.primary sexual characters, the gonads and genitals; secondary sexual characters, sexual characters other than the gonads and genitals, such as the beard in human males and the distinctive plumage of many birds.
ΚΠ
1774 J. Hill Veg. Syst. XXV. 9 In all the Daffodills, six Filaments, with their yellow heads, are conspicuous enough in the natural Flowers; here there are but three: but this only seems to break in upon the sexual character.
1834 Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. 4 318 Mr Titian R. Peale..suggested to Dr Godman that the tusks in the lower jaw might be merely a sexual character.
1926 J. R. Baker Sex in Man & Animals ii. 26 The primary sexual characters are..the testes and ovaries. The accessory sexual characters are the obviously useful sex characters other than the testes and ovaries, such as the vas deferens..and the vagina... The secondary sexual characters are those which seem not to be directly concerned in reproduction, such as beards, antlers, and crests.
1998 Isis 89 463 Neither the somatic nor the psychobehavioral sexual characters, then, were laid down irreversibly ab ovo.
sexual characteristic n. = sexual character n.
ΚΠ
1797 Encycl. Brit. VII. 348/2 The neuters or working ants which have no sexual characteristics.
1867 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 152 297 In the skull of a young male Chimpanzee..the pterygoids have already almost met in the middle line... Most probably this is a sexual characteristic.
1938 Biol. Bull. 75 283 The activation of the male constituents of the primary ambisexual gonad always precedes the development of such secondary..behaviouristic sexual characteristics.
2003 Church Times 16 May 11/1 Lord Nicholls..listed the indicia of human gender as chromosomes, gonads, internal sex organs, external genitalia, hormonal patterns and secondary sexual characteristics such as facial hair and body shape.
sexual dimorphism n. the condition in which there exist marked differences in size, form, or appearance between the sexes of a species in addition to differences in the reproductive organs themselves.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > animal body > general parts > sexual organs and reproduction > [noun] > sexual organs > sexual dimorphism
sexual dimorphism1853
1853 A. Gray Plantæ Wrightianæ Texano-Neo-Mexicanæ in Smithsonian Contrib. Knowl. 5 25 The ‘purple’ flowers are twice the size of those of O[xalis] stricta... There is probably a sexual dimorphism.
1877 Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 1876–7 12 150 (title) Antigeny, or sexual dimorphism in butterflies.
1902 Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 625/2 Bonellia and Hamingia are very interesting examples of sexual dimorphism... The male is reduced to a minute..organism, which passes its life..in a special recess of the nephridia of the female.
1970 Cambr. Anc. Hist. (ed. 3) I. i. v. 156 Even allowing for marked sexual dimorphism it is still obvious that more than one species [of australopithecine] demands recognition.
2000 K. Deaux & B. Major in M. S. Kimmel & A. Aronson Gendered Society Reader 81 Taking sexual dimorphism as a starting point, investigators have tried to establish, or in some cases refute, the existence of differences between women and men.
sexual discrimination n. (a) (chiefly Biology) differentiation or distinction between the sexes; (b) discrimination against a person, typically a woman, on the grounds of sex, esp. in employment.
ΚΠ
1669 W. Simpson Hydrologia Chymica 273 An humane embryo..without sexual discrimination, onely an umbratilous figuration of the microcosme.
1934 Biometrika 26 228 It may be doubted, too, whether the simotic index is of much value in aiding sexual discrimination.
1955 Times 12 May 14/4 A conference on human rights which discussed racial and sexual discrimination.
1974 Amer. Zoologist 14 18/1 Since in so many species there is virtually no sexual dimorphism, other than the size relationship after pairing, it is likely that sexual discrimination is chemical.
2003 J. P. Sterba in C. Cohen & J. P. Sterba Affirmative Action & Racial Preference ii. 227 The U.S. Supreme Court has advanced a number of arguments for treating sexual discrimination differently than racial discrimination.
sexual method n. Botany (now historical and rare) = sexual system n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > botany > [noun] > classification > specific systems
sexual method1738
sexual system1754
Linnaeanism1831
Tae-Bo1994
1738 J. F. Gronovius Let. 22 July in Select. Corr. Linnaeus & other Naturalists (1821) II. 173 We resigned him to Mr. Cliffort, to make a Catalogue of his garden, according to the sexual method, which is now printed, though not yet distributed.
1760 P. Miller Gardener's Kalendar (ed. 12) 376 The sexual method of classing plants, established by doctor Linnæus, is much preferable to all the systems of Botany which have yet appeared.
1839 London Encycl. X. 323/1 at Gramina In Tournefort they constitute part of the fifteenth class, termed apetali; and in Linnæus's sexual method they are mostly contained in the second order of the third class.
1955 J. Cleugh tr. H. Wendt I looked for Adam ii. 44 The system worked excellently in the case of plants... But in the case of animals difficulties arose. The sexual method was inappropriate here. And other methods were inapplicable.
sexual-political adj. of, relating to, or concerning sexual politics.
ΚΠ
1970 K. Millett Sexual Politics ii. iii. 110 The sexual-political predilections of each faction.
1984 Boundary 2 12 340 This analytic strategy..assumes men and women are already constituted as sexual-political subjects prior to their entry into the arena of social relations.
1999 C. Brookmyre One Fine Day in Middle of Night (2000) 30 Ally tended to take most of Jake's sexual-political theories with a pinch of post-modernism.
sexual politician n. a person versed or engaged in sexual politics.
ΚΠ
1970 K. Millett Sexual Politics ii. iv. 233 So we proceed to the counterrevolutionary sexual politicians themselves—Lawrence, Miller and Mailer.
1999 G. Jones Deconstructing Starships vii. 100 The..world-wide creation of wealth has been making insidious attacks, finally far more damaging than anything sexual-politicians can achieve, on the concept of sexual gender.
2007 Business Wire (Nexis) 18 Oct. The generation that came of age with Sex and the City..are well-versed sexual politicians with a future-forward view of masculinity, femininity and everything in between.
sexual politics n. attitudes governing the interaction between men and women; relations between the sexes regarded in terms of power.
ΚΠ
1946 T. P. Wolfe tr. W. Reich Mass Psychol. Fascism viii. 163 The industrial mode of production made the contradictions of reactionary sexual politics obvious.
1981 J. Monaco How to read Film (rev. ed.) iv. 229 The question of sexual politics in film.
2007 J. Weeks in Sexualities & Communication in Everyday Life ii. 42/2 I want to explore in some detail..the trouble that radical sexual politics can cause.
sexual selection n. the evolutionary theory, originally proposed by Darwin, of the preferential reproduction of male organisms with characteristics that favour their success in competition with other males, either directly or through mate choice by females, intended to account for the development of features such as large size, elaborate horns, ornamental coloration, etc.
ΚΠ
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species iv. 88 And this leads me to say a few words on what I call Sexual Selection. This depends, not on a struggle for existence, but on a struggle between the males for the possession of the females; the result is not death to the unsuccessful competitor, but few or no offspring.
1932 T. H. Morgan Sci. Basis Evol. vii. 154 The theory of sexual selection..assumes that the female continues to select in successive generations the more ornamental males.
2002 M. D. Greenfield Signalers & Receivers iv. 225 Were..males performing a stereotypical leg or wing movement for visual display or evaporation of pheromones, sexual selection may have favored stridulatory, tymbal, or percussional devices by which the movements yielded sound.
sexual system n. [after post-classical Latin systema sexuale ( Linnaeus Systema Naturæ (1735))] Botany (now historical) the Linnaean classification of plants, in which plants are grouped according to the number of stamens and pistils in each flower.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > botany > [noun] > classification > specific systems
sexual method1738
sexual system1754
Linnaeanism1831
Tae-Bo1994
1754 tr. C. Alston Diss. Bot. 69 According to the sexual system, where trees are confounded with herbs, a methodical Syntax or Construction of Plants in a garden is impossible.
1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. Pref. iii. Dr. Linnæus; whose Labors..and whose Invention of the Sexual System in particular are well known.
1825 T. K. Cromwell Hist. Colchester 352 The herbaceous collection will be arranged according to the sexual system of Linnæus.
1952 P. Mann Systematics Flowering Plants i. 9 Linnaeus chose as his main criteria of classification the reproductive parts of plants (stamens and carpels), and his is therefore referred to as the Sexual System of Classification.
2003 Bryologist 106 27/2 Many botanists used the artificial sexual system of Linnaeus, while others preferred the natural method that was largely advocated by Augustin Pyramus De Candolle.
C2. With the sense ‘relating to sexual contact or activity’.
sexual assault n. the action or an act of forcing an unconsenting person to engage in sexual activity; a rape; (Law) a crime involving forced sexual contact, variously defined as inclusive or exclusive of rape.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > rule of law > lawlessness > specific offences > [noun] > offence involving sex
sexual offence1840
sexual assault1883
sex crime1906
sex offence1910
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > loss of chastity > [noun] > indecent assault
indecent assault1861
sexual assault1883
sexual interference1932
molestation1945
interference1968
1883 E. C. Mann Man. Psychol. Med. viii. 127 There may be suicidal or homicidal impulses.., or sexual assaults may be made.
1944 Times 23 May 2/7 In making a sexual assault, the apellant's intention in pulling the girl's scarf around her neck was to keep her from struggling or screaming.
1977 Off our Backs (Electronic ed.) 31 Aug. 3 The case involved a youth who pleaded no contest to a charge of second-degree sexual assault (fondling/touching) of a girl.
1989 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 19 Mar. 11 d [The girl] became pregnant in a rape... Two suspects have been charged with first-degree criminal sexual assault.
2003 Independent on Sunday 29 June 15/1 Use of the drug dubbed ‘liquid ecstasy’, which has been used in numerous drug-assisted rapes and sexual assaults, will be outlawed.
sexual assault kit n. North American = rape kit n. at rape n.3 Compounds 2.
ΚΠ
1980 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 3 Nov. 5/2 All hospitals in the province will be supplied with a standardized ‘sexual assault kit’ that will make the examination easier and more effective.
1996 N.Y. Times 10 Nov. (Late ed.) xiii. 9/1 A team of nurses..would be trained in administering the sexual-assault kit.
2001 A. Michaud in M. M. Houck Mute Witnesses iii. 53 The task force quickly gathered the victim's clothing, along with a sexual assault kit, and sent it to the laboratory for examination.
sexual athlete n. a person characterized by a high degree of vigour or skill in the practice of sex.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual activity > [noun] > skill in sexual relationships > one who is skilled or expert in sexual matters
sexual athlete1911
sexpert1924
1911 H. Ellis Stud. Psychol. Sex (new ed.) VI. xi. 537 The rare men who possess a genital potency which they can exert to the gratification of women without injury to themselves have been, by Professor Benedikt, termed ‘sexual athletes’, and he remarks that such men easily dominate women.
1939 R. Pearl Nat. Hist. Population 293 Present-day examples of sexual athletes who make Casanova, the traditional star, seem a somewhat puny performer.
1963 Times 8 Feb. 14/1 The self-destructive career of a late romantic hero—drunkard, sexual athlete and poète maudit.
2007 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 11 July More and more American women expect to be gorgeous and sexual athletes into their 80s, says social historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg.
sexual athleticism n. vigorous or skilful sexual performance, or the capacity for this.
ΚΠ
1939 R. Pearl Nat. Hist. Population 293 I thought you might be interested in some cases of—as it seems to me—prodigious sexual athleticism.
1970 Guardian 12 Nov. 10/3 Would he have to do anything awful in the way of sexual athleticism?
1999 P. Lunneborg Chosen Lives Childfree Men xiv. 134 People used to equate the ability to father children with the size of your dick or your sexual athleticism.
sexual athletics n. sexual acts or activities performed with a high degree of vigour or skill.
ΚΠ
1961 K. E. Meyer New Amer. xi. 143 This egoism is orgiastic, filled with suggestions of dope, sexual athletics, and mystic visions.
1976 Jrnl. Royal Soc. Arts June 351/2 The 4,500 magazines dealing in specialized trades or tastes from ironmongery to sexual athletics.
2002 S. Home 69 Things to do with Dead Princess 172 The craze for amateur porn, which many intellectuals view as ‘non-exploitative’, thanks to the participants' supposedly eager and unpaid engagement in sexual athletics.
sexual attraction n. sexual allure; (an) attraction based on sexual instinct or sexual desire.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > attractiveness > [noun] > sex appeal
sexual attraction?1798
sex appeal1903
it1904
oomph1937
bed-worthiness1959
?1798 H. B. Dudley Passages on Trial Vortigern & Rowena (ed. 4) IV. 119 I'll shape..The Paphian Queen so witchinglie to life, With all Love's sexual attractions, that the full pulse of him who gazes on it Shall rise, and beat in tumult of delight!
1855 A. J. Davis Great Harmonia IV. xii. 302 It is a better thing to marry through deep friendship than from sexual attraction.
1890 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 3 102 The matter of sexual attraction, either between individuals or more especially between sexual pronuclei producing ‘prepotency’.
1968 S. Hynes Edwardian Turn of Mind vi. 195 The biological facts of sexual attraction and the urge to reproduce.
2005 N.Y. Mag. 7 Mar. 58/1 The least visible sexual minority is asexuals, who do not experience sexual attraction at all.
sexual excitement n. sexual stimulation or arousal.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual desire > [noun] > sexual excitement
sexual excitement1819
erotism1849
eroticism1899
horniness1963
1819 Medico-chirurg. Trans. 10 252 The external genitals of these animals were turgid with blood, and the sexual excitement of some was remarkably lively.
1849 London Med. Gaz. 9 934/1 The regular menstrual flow in the human female..has no connection with sexual excitement.
1988 M. Cohen Living on Water 141 Maurice felt so dizzy with sexual excitement that he found himself hanging onto the door-frame to steady himself.
2002 Guardian 23 Feb. (Saturday section) 8/1 The frustrations of being a thirtysomething woman with children and not enough sexual excitement.
sexual experience n. experience of sexual activity; (also) a sexual encounter.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual relationship > [noun] > sexual encounter
sexual experience1855
one-night stand1878
sexcapade1951
sexploit1960
1855 G. Drysdale Physical, Sexual & Nat. Relig. ii. 220 [A woman's] mind, if she have had little sexual experience, is generally..much occupied with the unpleasantness of revealing her disease.
1855 G. Drysdale Physical, Sexual & Nat. Relig. ii. 248 These unfortunates [sc. prostitutes], whose sexual experiences with the other sex have been so painful and degrading.
1988 M. Yorke Spirit of Place iv. 160 Often they were in search of sexual experiences in the more permissive European capitals.
2007 Guelph (Ont.) Mercury (Nexis) 24 July (Life section) b2 I'm a male, 23... By this age, sexual experience is usually expected, isn't it?
sexual harassment n. harassment (typically of a woman by a man) in a workplace or other professional or social situation, involving the making of unwanted sexual advances, obscene remarks, etc.
ΚΠ
1971 Yale Daily News 19 Apr. 1/5 ‘We insist,’ said one of the women, ‘that sex harassment is an integral component of sex discrimination.’ ‘Men perceive women in sexual categories and not in professional categories,’ she continued. The complaint of sexual harassment was apparently a ‘new idea’ to the H.E.W. team.
1973 Appleton (Wisconsin) Post-Crescent 13 Oct. 1 Katie Miller of the Division of Equal Opportunities said she does not know how many verbal complaints the agency receives on sexual harassment of employes.
1989 Independent (BNC) 18 Dec. 5 Preventing sexual harassment is part of good management because good managers will wish to ensure that their employees are treated with respect and dignity.
2001 M. Blake 24 Karat Schmooze xxv. 285 Surprisingly, he had made it to the end of term without courting any sexual harassment cases.
sexual intercourse n. sexual relations or union between the sexes (in early use often with the), copulation, coition; (now esp.) intimate sexual contact between two individuals involving penetration (penetration n. 1b) and typically leading to orgasm, which serves (between a male and a female of various species) as the means of sexual reproduction, and (in humans) typically expresses feelings of love or desire; = intercourse n. 2d; an instance of this; (also in later use more generally) any form of sexual contact of this kind between members of the same sex; cf. sex n.1 4b and social intercourse at social adj. 5e.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual activity > [noun] > sexual intercourse
ymonec950
moneOE
meanc1175
manredc1275
swivinga1300
couplec1320
companyc1330
fellowred1340
the service of Venusc1350
miskissinga1387
fellowshipc1390
meddlinga1398
carnal knowinga1400
flesha1400
knowledgea1400
knowledginga1400
japec1400
commoning?c1425
commixtionc1429
itc1440
communicationc1450
couplingc1475
mellingc1480
carnality1483
copulation1483
mixturea1500
Venus act?1507
Venus exercise?1507
Venus play?1507
Venus work?1507
conversation?c1510
flesh-company1522
act?1532
carnal knowledge1532
occupying?1544
congression1546
soil1555
conjunction1567
fucking1568
rem in re1568
commixture1573
coiture1574
shaking of the sheets?1577
cohabitation1579
bedding1589
congress1589
union1598
embrace1599
making-outa1601
rutting1600
noddy1602
poop-noddy1606
conversinga1610
carnal confederacy1610
wapping1610
businessa1612
coition1615
doinga1616
amation1623
commerce1624
hot cocklesa1627
other thing1628
buck1632
act of love1638
commistion1658
subagitation1658
cuntc1664
coit1671
intimacy1676
the last favour1676
quiffing1686
old hat1697
correspondence1698
frigging1708
Moll Peatley1711
coitus1713
sexual intercourse1753
shagging1772
connection1791
intercourse1803
interunion1822
greens1846
tail1846
copula1864
poking1864
fuckeea1866
sex relation1871
wantonizing1884
belly-flopping1893
twatting1893
jelly roll1895
mattress-jig1896
sex1900
screwing1904
jazz1918
zig-zig1918
other1922
booty1926
pigmeat1926
jazzing1927
poontang1927
relations1927
whoopee1928
nookie1930
hump1931
jig-a-jig1932
homework1933
quickie1933
nasty1934
jig-jig1935
crumpet1936
pussy1937
Sir Berkeley1937
pom-pom1945
poon1947
charvering1954
mollocking1959
leg1967
rumpy-pumpy1968
shafting1971
home plate1972
pata-pata1977
bonking1985
legover1985
knobbing1986
rumpo1986
fanny1993
1753 Ess. Celibacy 12 Man might have been made hermaphroditical, like some of the less perfect animals, as snails and worms, which however have sexual intercourse with one another.
1787 J. Whitaker Mary Queen of Scots Vindicated III. 82 At the Queen's journey to Stirling, no sexual intercourse had taken place between Bothwell and her at all.
1812 Morning Chron. 31 Mar. 2/5 There is no question likely to arise respecting the nature and consequences of the sexual intercourse, which is not fully considered.
1841 T. R. Jones Gen. Outl. Animal Kingdom xv. §331. 285 [In Aphides] a single sexual intercourse is sufficient to impregnate..the female parent.
1868 H. Maudsley Physiol. & Pathol. of Mind (ed. 2) ii. iii. 405 Acute dementia..connected, he believes, with the effect produced on the nervous system by sexual intercourse.
1929 D. H. Lawrence Pornogr. & Obscenity 18 The young man and the young woman went and had sexual intercourse together.
1948 A. C. Kinsey et al. Sexual Behavior Human Male xvii. 548 Scientifically, popularly, and legally, the term ‘sexual intercourse’ refers to genital union, and it is in that sense that the term is used here.
1969 H. Raymont in N.Y. Times 24 Mar. 56/2 In addition to graphic, though simulated, scenes of sexual intercourse there is a frenzy of homosexual and other unorthodox sexual acts.
1975 L. B. Hobson Exam. of Patient ix. 360 A man castrated in later life is still able to have sexual intercourse; that is, he remains potent.
1990 Independent on Sunday 18 Feb. 4 (advt.) We know for certain that HIV, the virus which causes AIDS, can be spread by sexual intercourse from man to man, man to woman and from woman to man.
sexual interference n. euphemistic sexual molestation or assault.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > loss of chastity > [noun] > indecent assault
indecent assault1861
sexual assault1883
sexual interference1932
molestation1945
interference1968
1932 Times 23 June 4/4 When Mrs Swift's body was found there..was no indication of sexual interference.
1968 ‘A. Gilbert’ Night Encounter iv. 45 Quite a young girl... No attempt at sexual interference, no signs of pregnancy.
1993 Canad. Living July 54/3 Tom McConnell pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual interference with a minor.
sexual inversion n. Psychiatry and Psychology (now disused) a theory according to which homosexuality is the result of abnormally close identification in early life with role models of the opposite sex; the process described by this theory; (also more narrowly) homosexuality regarded as a pathology or perversion: see inversion n. 10.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual orientation > homosexuality > [noun]
sexual inversion1883
inversion1891
homosexuality1892
uranism1893
Uranianism1909
homoeroticism1915
homoerotism1916
queerness1925
homoism1927
homophiliaa1942
gayness1954
queerdom1961
poofdom1972
gaydom1978
1883 A. M. Hamilton Man. Med. Jurispr. iii. 185 A great many arrests have been made..of men dressed in women's clothes who were engaged in soliciting for a purpose too vile to mention. This sexual inversion has been described by several German writers.
1897 H. Ellis & J. A. Symonds Sexual Inversion ii. 27 It seems to have been in Italy that the convenient term ‘sexual inversion’ was first used.
1901 J. A. Godfrey Sci. Sex v. 206 Sexual inversion—that is, the turning-in of the sex instinct towards individuals of the same sex—is an abnormal phenomenon.
1958 Amer. Jrnl. Orthopsychiatry 28 424 Many workers fail to distinguish between homosexuality and sexual inversion, or more accurately, sex-role inversion. Freud..himself..equated the two terms.
2002 Michigan Law Rev. 100 2070 The depiction of sexual inversion, public indecency, and cross-dressing were not even subject to serious constitutional challenge at the turn of the twentieth century.
sexual morality n. morality relating to or governing the conduct of sexual behaviour; a moral code of this kind.
ΚΠ
1803 Monthly Rev. July 330 This change or evolution in sexual morality has taken place.
1885 Cent. Mag. July 390/1 The large number of offenses against sexual morality..make one suspect that this was not a merely puritanic scruple.
1941 Horizon Sept. 161 All societies, as the price of survival, have to insist on a fairly high standard of sexual morality.
2003 K. L. Gaca Making of Fornication i. 8 To investigate the formation of Christian sexual morality without considering the Greek biblical norms that inform it is like trying to understand Moby Dick while setting the whale aside.
sexual offence n. a legal transgression relating to or involving sex, esp. a sexual assault or misdemeanour.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > rule of law > lawlessness > specific offences > [noun] > offence involving sex
sexual offence1840
sexual assault1883
sex crime1906
sex offence1910
1840 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. London 3 346 The offences which preponderate among the class of instructed criminals are, malicious offences against persons and property, frauds and forgery, rioting and sexual offences.
1882 Athens (Ohio) Messenger 7 Sept. 1/3 Red colors in architecture, dress and decorations exert a powerful influence in exciting crime, particularly murder and sexual offenses.
1977 Evening Gaz. (Middlesbrough) 11 Jan. 3/4 Sexual offences, mainly indecent assault on females, increased by 17.
2001 P. D. James Death in Holy Orders (2002) 41 He had been convicted of sexual offences against two boy servers in the church of which he was priest.
sexual offender n. a person who commits a sexual offence or sexual offences.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > rule of law > lawlessness > specific offences > [noun] > offence involving sex > one guilty of
sexual offender1893
sex offender1911
beast1983
1893 Daily Nevada State Jrnl. 20 July The amnesty granted by ex-President Harrison to relieve sexual offenders in Utah from prior disability to vote.
1924 Internat. Jrnl. Psycho-anal. 5 95 (heading) The sexual offender.
1965 A. Prior Interrogators iii. 28 He knew the nut-cases, the convicted sexual offenders.
2007 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 4 Mar. i. 1/5 About 2,700 pedophiles, rapists and other sexual offenders are already being held indefinitely, mostly in special treatment centers.
sexual partner n. a person who or animal which engages in sexual intercourse with another.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual partner > [noun]
sleeping partner?1456
screw1725
sexual partner1847
shack-job1946
shack-up1969
1847 O. Smith Outl. Nature 90 Just as animals change now and then their sexual partners.
1948 A. C. Kinsey et al. Sexual Behavior Human Male xxi. 632 A homosexually experienced male could undoubtedly find a larger number of sexual partners among males than a heterosexually experienced male could find among females.
2008 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 22 Jan. (Features section) 21 Some studies show that the more sexual partners a person has before marriage, the more likely she or he is to cheat on a spouse.
sexual perversion n. sexual development or behaviour regarded as abnormal or deviant; an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > types of sexual behaviour > [noun] > sexual behaviour regarded as unconventional or unacceptable
misaffection1621
perversion1699
sexual perversion1857
kinkiness1924
paraphilia1925
1857 A. J. Davis Magic Staff lvi. 477 The yet unmarried must resist every impulse toward sexual perversion.
1881 Chicago Med. Rev. 4 379/2 Sexual perversion, a symptom of the hereditary and degenerative mental states, is divided into four groups.
1977 E. J. Trimmer et al. Visual Dict. Sex (1978) i. 12 The common paraphilias that we choose to call sexual perversions today, were defined by the Greeks as being parallel to love.
2002 M. J. Kehily Sexuality, Gender & Schooling iv. 84 Freud's discussion of sexual perversions regard the perversions of scopophilia and exhibitionism as psychical opposites.
sexual pervert n. a person whose sexual development or behaviour is regarded as abnormal or deviant.
ΚΠ
1883 J. G. Kiernan in J. N. Katz Gay/Lesbian Almanac (1983) 195 The sexual pervert had an enlarged clitoris two and one-half inches when erect.
1898 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 4 328 We din the neuropathic family..the moral imbecile, the sexual pervert, the kleptomaniac.
1958 ‘J. Byrom’ Or be he Dead iii. 37 Essays about sexual perverts.
1997 K. Reichs Déjà Dead xii. 147 Anecdotes of Peeping Toms and other sexual perverts.
sexual preference n. (originally) a preference with respect to an object of sexual desire, potential mate, partner, etc.; (later chiefly) a person's sexual identity in relation to the gender or genders to whom he or she is usually attracted; (broadly) the fact of being heterosexual, bisexual, or homosexual (cf. sexual orientation n.).Now sometimes regarded as offensive when used to refer to a person's sexual identity or orientation, with preference viewed as implying that a person's sexual identity is chosen rather than inherent.In early use probably not a fixed collocation.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual orientation > [noun]
sexual preference1822
sexuality1897
sexual orientation1931
orientation1978
1822 J. Fleming Philos. Zool. I. xv. 430 There is no example of individuals of one species giving a sexual preference to those of another.
1894 C. G. Chaddock in A. M. Hamilton & L. Godkin Sys. Legal Med. II. 566 This display of sexual preference may have for its object the physical (corporeal) characteristics of the opposite sex or objects artificially associated with them.., such as articles of wearing-apparel.
1944 Mind 53 154 We say, for instance, that it shows an undeveloped moral sense to blame a man for some involuntary but abnormal sexual preference.
1968 Brit. Jrnl. Psychiatry 114 722/2 Seven subjects expressed a primary sexual preference other than heterosexual.
1994 Weekly World News 4 Jan. 6/2 We..measure their sexual preference by observing the dilation of the pupils of their eyes, their body language and their behavior. When we find the male that excites a high level of interest in the female, we arrange to mate the two [animals].
2010 Hoosier Times (Bloomington, Indiana) 25 Apr. (Herald-Times ed.) (Parade section) 14/1 After more than a decade of keeping his sexual preference under wraps, he's recently come out of the closet.
sexual psychopath n. a person who displays symptoms characteristic of sexual psychopathy.
ΚΠ
1922 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 27 627 Probably influenced also by a prevalence of sexual psychopaths among his patients, Freud bases this ‘unconscious’ upon a presumed sex instinct.
1950 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 56 142/2 The concept of the ‘sexual psychopath’ is so vague that it cannot be used for judicial and administrative purposes.
2001 Jrnl. Criminal Law & Criminol. 91 1139 A probation/parole officer filed a petition against a sex offender alleging that he was a sexual psychopath and a sexually dangerous person.
sexual psychopathy n. mental disease characterized by abnormal (esp. antisocial or illegal) sexual behaviour.
ΚΠ
1895 Cent. Mag. Oct. 938/1 A sort of sexual psychopathy..causes Zola to abuse smells, to see women's linen in an erotic sense.
1954 B. Karpman Sexual Offender xii. 224 Determination of the question of sexual psychopathy is by a superior court and commitment is for an indefinite period.
1994 Law & Society Rev. 28 754 Sentence was suspended on condition he participate in the sexual psychopathy program.
sexual relations n. sexual contact or activity, esp. sexual intercourse.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual activity > [noun]
playOE
loveOE
toucha1400
chamber workc1450
venery1497
bed-glee1582
bed-game1596
fiddling1622
twatting1893
sexual relations1897
fun time1905
massage1906
sex play1922
actionc1930
hanky-panky1939
making-out1957
lumber1966
1897 ‘S. Grand’ Beth Bk. xliv. 452 The sex question..is the stock in trade of every author, as if there were nothing..in the lives of men and women but their sexual relations.
1916 A. A. Brill tr. S. Freud Leonardo da Vinci ii. 39 Passive homosexuals who play the feminine part in sexual relations.
1948 A. C. Kinsey et al. Sexual Behavior Human Male xxii. 674 A fair number of city boys have sexual relations with animals.
1998 Daily Tel. 20 Aug. 12/5 A Time/CNN poll showed that 87 per cent of Americans believed that oral sex amounted to sexual relations.
2004 ‘J. Jameson’ & N. Strauss How to make Love like Porn Star iii. i. 192 This is probably too much information, but we had sexual relations. When it was over, we lay in bed together, side by side.
sexual repression n. originally Psychology repression of sexual desire or sexual instincts.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > theory of psychoanalysis > libido > sublimation of libido > [noun] > repression > sexual
sexual repression1885
vagina dentata1908
castration-complex1914
1885 E. B. Foote Replies Alphites xvi. 88 These diseases are induced by sexual repression and secret indulgences as well as by intemperance in the exercise of the natural function.
1910 tr. S. Freud in Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 21 218 The claims of our civilization make life too hard for the greater part of humanity..without producing an excess of cultural gain by this excess of sexual repression.
1961 R. F. C. Hull tr. C. G. Jung Freud & Psychoanal. in Coll. Wks. IV. iv. 321 As soon as we enter the field of neurosis, this antithesis is stretched to the limit. God becomes the symbol of the most complete sexual repression.
2003 R. Herring Talking Cock 72 It may seem strange that Queen Victoria and her reign are associated with sexual repression. After all, she did have nine children.
sexual revolution n. [after German sexuelle Revolution (c1919 or earlier; Otto Gross (1877–1920), Austrian psychiatrist and anarchist, is credited with coining the phrase (by F. Werfel in 1929)); compare French revolution sexuelle (1934)] any significant shift in attitudes to sex and conventions of sexual behaviour; spec. the liberalization of social and moral approaches to sex often held to have taken place in Western societies in the late 1960s and 1970s.
ΚΠ
1930 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 35 662 William McDougall undertakes to reduce libertarian dogmas to a logical absurdity, and Samuel D. Schmalhausen supplies affective palpitations on behalf of the new sexual revolution.
1957 Marriage & Family Living 19 307/2 Hirsch's ‘sexual revolution of 1930-55’ has been going on since Ellis, Freud, Kraft-Ebbing, Plotz, et cetera, and long before.
1967 Times 6 Jan. 11/2 Before debating the Bill [sc. on state aid for contraception], the Commons should clear their minds of cant about the ‘sexual revolution’ and remember, with Macaulay, an equally permissive period, [etc.].
1977 ‘C. Fremlin’ Spider-orchid viii. 61 In spite of Permissiveness and the Sexual Revolution..nothing had changed!
1981 V. Stolcke in K. Young et al. Of Marriage & Market (1984) viii. 163 The relatively greater sexual freedom in some Western countries in recent times has shown that a sexual revolution does not necessarily entail a social revolution.
2006 N.Y. Times 27 Aug. (T: Style Mag.) 104/2 The same energy that brought on the 1960's sexual revolution is stirring up today's randy reawakening.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.n.1622