heterosexualityn.
/ˌhɛt(ə)rə(ʊ)ˌsɛkʃʊˈalᵻti/, /ˌhɛt(ə)rə(ʊ)ˌsɛksjʊˈalᵻti/, U.S. /ˌhɛdəroʊˌsɛkʃəˈwælədi/ Originally Psychology and Psychoanalysis.† 2. Sexual desire or activity regarded as psychologically unhealthy or abnormal; spec. sadomasochism. Obsolete. rare.It is unclear whether or not use of the word in quot. 1898 refers specifically to heterosexual desire or activity.
1.
a. The state or quality of being sexually attracted to individuals of the opposite sex; heterosexual character, nature, or identity.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual orientation > heterosexuality > [noun]
heterosexuality1895
heterosex1940
1895 C. G. Chaddock tr. A. P. F. von Schrenck-Notzing Therapeutic Suggestion x. 194 In sexual inversion the following..diagnostic points should be considered..: the episodical occurrence of homo-sexual impulses in individuals of hetero-sexuality [Ger. bei Heterosexualen];..the complete absence of hetero-sexuality [Ger. Heterosexualität] as a pathological phenomenon.
1939 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 17 July 1222/1 The cause of somatic heterosexuality in women may lie in the developmental period of early foetal life.
1965 New Statesman 30 Apr. 677/2 Many people are made unhappy by their heterosexuality, but I do not believe the psychotherapist exists who would try to cure that.
1980 Los Angeles Times 7 Sept. i. 4/2 ‘Homophobia’ forces a man to prove his heterosexuality while trying to avoid intimacy with other men except in carefully structured situations.
2010 Independent 1 Feb. (Life section) 3/2 She has..the suburban air of someone who, when not trying to convert you to heterosexuality, would probably be rustling up a jolly good Victoria sponge.
b. As a count noun: a heterosexual nature or identity; a particular experience or expression of this.
ΚΠ
1928 D. Seabury Growing into Life 421 It may result in a heterosexuality of an extreme type, so that the mind is lustful toward the opposite sex.
1981 E. Hooker in R. Green & J. Wiener Methodol. Sex Res. 293 There are as many varieties and subgroups of ‘homosexualities’ as there are ‘heterosexualities’.
1996 Hist. Workshop Jrnl. Spring 34 The contradiction between performance and containment destabilizes the opera's narrative construction of a normative heterosexuality.
2015 Anthropol. Q. 88 979 Everyday spaces are more heteronormative than heterosexual, in that only certain heterosexualities are publicly acceptable.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > types of sexual behaviour > [noun] > sadism or masochism
sadism1818
masochism1892
algolagnia1893
heterosexuality1898
sadomasochism1919
S and M1965
D and S1990
1898 B. G. Carleton Pract. Treat. Sexual Disorders Men xix. 121 Heterosexuality is a variety of sexual perversion characterized by a desire for association during coitus of acts of cruelty and violence, presenting itself either as an active or passive algolagnia.
1900 W. A. N. Dorland Amer. Illustr. Med. Dict. 300/2 Heterosexuality, abnormal or perverted sexual appetite toward the opposite sex.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1895