The term has been used since the 1890s.[4] It derives from
Sappho, a Greek
poetess whose verses mainly focused on love between women and her own homosexual passions.[5] She was born on the Greek island
Lesbos, which also inspired the term
lesbianism.[6][7]
Sappho's work is one of the few ancient references to sapphic love. Her poetry, significant in quality, is a rare example of
female sexuality separated from
reproduction in history.[8][9]
Use
The term sapphic encompasses the experiences of lesbians and bisexual women, for example, among other
plurisexual and
multiromantic individuals.[10][11] Asexual and aromantic women who are attracted to a woman are also sapphic.[12][13]
Some sapphic individuals may be non-binary or genderqueer, using the term more broadly.[14][15] There are also equivalent terms for relationships between men (
Achillean, named in reference of
Achilles and Patroclus,[16] or
Vincian, reference of
sexuality of Leonardo da Vinci),[17] between a man and a woman (duaric), and involving at least one non-binary person (diamoric or
enbian).[18][19]
Sapphic is also used in
LGBT literature for works involving at least one relationship between women, regardless if they are lesbian or not.[20][21][22]
See also
Look up sapphic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
^Breetveld, Robin Rose (2023). Bisexual (Un)belonging: Exploring the Socio-spatial Negotiation of Plurisexual Individuals in LGBT+ and Queer Spaces (doctoral thesis).
University of Kent.
doi:10.22024/UniKent/01.02.105513.
^Winer, Canton; Carroll, Megan; Yang, Yuchen; Linder, Katherine; Miles, Brittney (February 2024). "'I Didn't Know Ace Was a Thing': Bisexuality and Pansexuality as Identity Pathways in Asexual Identity Formation". Sexualities. 27 (1–2): 267–289.
doi:
10.1177/13634607221085485.
ISSN1363-4607.
^Klein, Ula Lukszo (2023). "Sapphic Relations". In Eron, Sarah; Aljoe, Nicole N.; Kaul, Suvir (eds.). The Routledge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Literatures in English. Routledge. pp. 287–298.
doi:
10.4324/9781003271208-30.
ISBN978-1-003-27120-8.
^Dyer, Harriet (2021). The Little Book of LGBTQ+: An A–Z of Gender and Sexual Identities. Summersdale Publishers.
ISBN978-1-78783-974-8.
^Nygård, Ida Sofie Sverkeli (2021). Sapphic Representations in Contemporary Young Adult Literature (master's thesis). Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.
hdl:11250/2992128.
^Hackett, Robin (2004). Sapphic Primitivism: Productions of Race, Class, and Sexuality in Key Works of Modern Fiction. Rutgers University Press.
ISBN978-0-8135-3347-6.