Uranism

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A 19th-century term for same-sex attraction, coined by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs to describe men who felt drawn to other men
2. An outdated word for homosexual desire, originally used by German writer Karl Heinrich Ulrichs in the nineteenth century
3. A historical label for same-sex attraction, once used in scientific and early activist writing to describe homosexual feelings

Etymology: Uranism is a 19th-century coinage, not an ancient term. It was formed in German as "Uranismus" and draws on the Greek adjective "ouránios," meaning "heavenly" or "spiritual." The sense of "heavenly" in that Greek word comes from "ouranós," the sky, which was personified in Greek myth as a primordial god. The coinage belongs to the work of German writers who, in the 1860s and after, sought language for same-sex attraction at a time when it was criminalised in many German-speaking states. The choice of the "heavenly" root was meant to suggest a higher or more spiritual form of love, the idea being that such attraction was natural and elevated rather than base. The term was later adopted in English and other languages, where it was used in medical and sexological writing of the period before falling largely out of use.

Synonyms: homosexuality

Antonyms: heterosexuality