Sodomia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Sexual activity involving anal intercourse, often considered controversial or taboo in various cultures
2. A term used to describe certain sexual acts that may deviate from traditional practices, particularly focused on anal sex
3. Referring to the act of engaging in sexual intercourse through the anus, which is often surrounded by societal and legal implications

Etymology: Medieval Latin writers took the name of a biblical city and made it a label for sexual sin. In Genesis 19, Sodom's inhabitants threaten Lot's visitors, and the city is destroyed by fire from heaven. Readers over the centuries linked that story with sexual misconduct, and "sodomia" was coined from "Sodoma" with the abstract ending "-ia." The eleventh-century Italian churchman Peter Damian is often credited with fixing the term in this moral sense in his treatise "Liber Gomorrhianus," written around 1051. Earlier and later usage was broader than the modern definition. It covered many non-procreative acts, including oral sex and bestiality, not only anal intercourse. The word reached English around the 14th century through Anglo-Norman "sodomie," and it remained a legal term for centuries, which explains why its historical range was wider than the narrower sense most dictionaries give today.

Synonyms: sodomy