pseudosexualadj.
/ˌs(j)uːdə(ʊ)ˈsɛkʃʊəl/, U.S. /ˌsudoʊˈsɛkʃ(əw)əl/; see also sexual adj. 1. Of or relating to pseudosex; spec. relating to or designating activity regarded as a substitute for or displacement of actual or ‘normal’ sexual behaviour and sometimes having non-sexual motivation (as the fear of aggression, desire for dominance, etc.).
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual activity > other types of sexual activity or intercourse > [adjective] > imitating or acting as a substitute for sexual intercourse
pseudosexual1898
1898 Mind 7 428 Even in inversion a kind of pseudosexual attraction rules, the invert being attracted to a person unlike himself or herself, though of the same sex.
1937 B. J. F. Laubscher Sex, Custom & Psychopathol. 79 The word metsha denotes courtship as well as a form of pseudo-sexual intercourse.
1951 E. Bergler Neurotic Counterfeit-sex iii. 141 All their sexual (one should say, rather, pseudo-sexual) activity is but a blind for totally unrelated baby-conflicts.
1969 Sci. Jrnl. Apr. 86/2 To the extent that such behaviour looks sexual, but in fact relates almost entirely to agonism, it can be described as pseudosexual.
1976 Mod. Lang. Stud. 6 15 The sins punished in the hell of Ulysses are Bloom's auto- and pseudo-sexual activities.
1987 W. M. S. Russell & C. Russell in G. E. Slusser et al. Storm Warnings 166 The ethological basis for the connection between dominance and pseudosexual displacement activities was only discovered..in the nineteen-fifties.
1994 A. Sampson Acts Abuse i. 9 Rape is instead a ‘pseudosexual act’, its motivation dominance, even anger.
2002 Ess. Canad. Writing (Nexis) Winter 118 She seduces and kills her captor in a pseudosexual fashion.
2. Biology. Designating or relating to a process or phenomenon which resembles, but is distinct from, one involved in sexual reproduction; esp. designating or relating to the parthogenetic production by certain crustaceans of eggs resembling those of the sexual phase.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Crustacea > [adjective] > of or relating to pseudosexual reproduction
pseudosexual1913
1913 Amer. Naturalist 47 282 All non-sexual nuclear or cell fusions must not be considered as pseudosexual.., for there is an asexual cell fusion in addition to the sexual and the pseudosexual.
1925 A. M. Banta in Zeitschr. f. induktive Abstammungs- und Vererbungslehre 40 37 Since these eggs are apparently in every way like sexual eggs in other Cladocera, except that they develop without fertilization, they will be referred to as pseudo-sexual eggs and this type of reproduction will be referred to as pseudo-sexual reproduction as contrasted with the usual type of parthenogenesis and the normal sexual reproduction in Cladocera.
1967 G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. II. xxiv. 510 Ruttner-Kolisko..found that in Keratella hiemalis pseudo-sexual resting eggs are produced parthenogenetically at the height of the development of the population..in July.
1994 Bryologist 97 350/2 Here ‘asexual’ reproduction [in plants] is considered to be solely the production of a single-celled embryonic sporophyte by the fusion of non-gametic cells (or nuclei)... Perhaps ‘pseudosexual’ would be a more appropriate term.
Derivatives
pseudoˈsexually adv. in a pseudosexual manner (see sense 1).
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual activity > other types of sexual activity or intercourse > [adverb] > imitating or acting as a substitute for sexual intercourse
pseudosexually1964
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > types of reproduction > [adverb] > others
viviparously1822
agamically1858
agamogenetically1868
metagenetically1868
parthenogenetically1874
parthenogenically1911
apomictically1921
pseudosexually1964
1964 Listener 12 Nov. 755/1 Neglectful mothering..produces juvenile delinquent monkeys, precociously aggressive and pseudosexually active.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1898