Sodomies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Engaging in sexual acts that involve anal intercourse
2. the practice of anal copulation, particularly among male partners
3. any sexual behavior that is considered unnatural or outside traditional norms, particularly involving the anus

Etymology: "Sodomies" is simply the plural of "sodomy," so the story belongs to the singular. The name comes from Sodom, the city in the Hebrew Bible's Genesis 18 and 19, where the men of the town demand to have sexual relations with the visitors who have come to Lot's house. The text is usually read as condemning sexual violence and inhospitality, but over the centuries the episode came to be read as a warning against sexual acts outside marriage, and in particular against same-sex and anal intercourse. The city's name was turned into a label for those acts, and that association gave the word its moral charge. Because the word was built from a place name, it carries a biblical story inside it. Its meaning shifted from the city's reputed wickedness to a specific category of sexual conduct, which is why the word is so often heard in legal and religious writing, where it was used to define offences rather than to describe a town.

Synonyms: anal intercourse