The word
homosexual is a Greek and Latin
hybrid, with the first element derived from Greek ὁμός
homos, "same" (not related to the Latin
homo, "man", as in
Homo sapiens), thus connoting sexual acts and affections between members of the same sex, including lesbianism.
[25][26] The first known appearance of
homosexual in print is found in an 1868 letter to
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs by the Austrian-born novelist
Karl-Maria Kertbeny.
[27][28] arguing against a
Prussian anti-
sodomy law.
[28][29] In 1886, the psychiatrist
Richard von Krafft-Ebing used the terms
homosexual and
heterosexual in his book
Psychopathia Sexualis. Krafft-Ebing's book was so popular among both laymen and doctors that the terms
heterosexual and
homosexual became the most widely accepted terms for sexual orientation.
[30][31]
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