lesbian

From Latin Lesbiana, built from Ancient Greek Λέσβος (Lésbos) plus the Latin adjective suffix -iana. It refers to the island of Lesbos, home of Sappho, whose sentimental poems about women gave the place its lasting association.

The word's modern use may have been borrowed from, or shaped by, the German medical term lesbisch, which appears in medical literature starting in the 1830s.

It shares its root inspiration with 'sapphist' and 'sapphic,' both of which also point back to Sappho of Lesbos.