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A term preferred by some writers in preference to using "homosexual" as a noun.
In a newsmagazine cover article on Gore Vidal in the late 1970s, the celebrated author and essayist explained that, since "homosexual" is used as an adjective ("homosexual fantasy"), the noun form needed something more, well, distinctive and substantive: he used "homosexualist" to describe someone who is gay in practice, or as a state of being.
One doesn't argue lightly with Gore Vidal but there are precedents either way in forming nouns. "Alcoholic drink" / "Joe's an alcoholic," uses "alcoholic" first as an adjective, then as a noun. Similarly, "Green politics" / "Cary has become a Green."
OTOH a medical practitioner of psychiatry is not a "psychiatric" (better used as an adjective = "psychiatric evaluation"), but a "psychiatrist," a description of a person, not a field. One who enjoys sensual things is a "sensualist" but has an appreciation of the sensual.
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"John is an out-of-the-closet homosexual"; OR
"John is an out-of-the-closet homosexualist."
BUT ALSO: "John is a homosexual," OR
"John is homosexual." -- BUT NOT:
"John is homosexualist."
It is much to be hoped that the definitions above of "same-sex love" or "practitioner of same-sex love" will stand, despite the fact that many right-wingers use it almost as a slur (it can get clinical) and avoid "gay" as a neologism. Don't think it isn't political, either.
GAY: Current idiom in casual speech would have it
"John is gay." Note that "a gay" commodifies John just a little.
See Gay.
"John's love life has been exclusively homosexual since 1993."
"John has an active homosexual love life."
"John is the kind of homosexualist other homosexualists can be proud of."
A Latin and Italian word regarding male oral sex that is frequently confused with the more commonly used "fellare." "Irrumare" (person who does the act is an 'irrumator') refers to the person who offers the penis for sucking. The person who gives head (takes the penis into his or her mouth) is the 'fellator,' from "fellare". Modern terms like "sucker/suckee" or "bottom/top" don't cover the distinction so well.
-- That cocksucker? He can fellare me!
-- Oh you mean you want to irrumare him!
A mark of punctuation ( \ ) introduced in 1960 as a deliberate way to convert two ALGOL symbols ("up" and "down" carets) into ASCII by using the new backslash and its traditional opposite number, the virgule or slant ( / ):
\/ - or - /\ for example.
The backslash went on to find use in early UNIX programs and today is party of a typical QWERTY keyboard, usually to the right of the bracket (and braces) keys. Other terms for the mark include slosh, reverse virgule, and reverse slash.
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If I see a backslash ( \ ) at the end of the line, does it mean go to the next line or go to the next term?
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Originally and still a poker metatphor, 'all in' has also come to mean a situation whose subject is unreservedly involved, without qualification. Fully committed. In this sense the term "all in" is almost the same as its denotative opposite, "all out," as in all-out warfare.
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All in means you don't stop for Sundays.
All in means nobody can talk you out of it.
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(from New York Times online, October 17, 2011):
Mr. Immelt’s remarks took on the tone of a halftime pep talk. He said that with a clearer regulatory structure, an increased export base and an “all-in” business climate, the United States would be able to compete on a global front.
---Note that the Times used the term 'all in' with a hyphen separating the two words, which is customary when such a term is used as a single adjective. (Compare: "Frank is just flat-out broke".) Also note that the Times put slightly distancing quotation marks around the phrase in the above Immelt citation. This probably means that the Times writer recognized the phrase as a colloquialism, not yet fully acceptable standard written English, in this extended (non-poker) usage. Some grammarians (cf. Strunk and White, THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE), object to ironic or distancing quotation marks on the theory that if a term or phrase is known to most readers, introduction or contexting is not necessary. Most likely, though, the New York Times' elaborate style sheet does not forbid such use.
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A polite and gender-specific way to say fuck buddy (a term which can apply to male and female alike), both meaning a fairly regular sexual partner of whom no particular social commitment or romantic allegiance is expected. Very similar to "friend with benefits" except that if absoutely necessary the guy can be referred to as a "boyfriend" which, strictly speaking, isn't a lie.
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Abercrombie? Oh, he's an honorary boyfriend at most. He gets nookie but I don't have to take him shopping. So far so good for us both."
"Am I still looking for a "regular" boyfriend? Sure, but for now Dolph keeps me satisfied sexually, so I know horniness is not going to interfere with my judgment choosing a real boyfriend."
A useful neologism, but one that is frequently misunderstood and misused.
1. Most literal meaning -- tending to engage or arouse sexual interest, or imply an erotic connection, by one man for another.
2. Extended meaning, sometimes misused (see Example 2 below): a coded type of homosexual reference invisible to heterosexuals. This is fine as far as it goes, but it should not exclude heterosexuals.
3. Similarly, if used carelessly, "homoerotic" can be misused to imply an environment in which same-sex attraction exists simply because of same-sex affiliation. In other words, a judgment is made regarding sexuality where none should exist, allowing the speaker to practice psychology without a license.
4. Often the butt of malapropisms.
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1. The "Calamus" section of Walt Whitman's book of poetry LEAVES OF GRASS is frankly homoerotic in message and in symbolism. (It was also one of the sections 'banned in Boston').
2. Saying that Marlon Brando has "unique homoerotic appeal" is literally true, but should not be used in a context that would exclude the legitimate experience of erotic appeal that so many straight women felt.
3. To say that eight straight men in an office constitute a "homoerotic environment" implies a judgment that simply may not be true. Where's the attraction? "Homoerotic" should not be used as a pretentious and wrong substitute for "same-sex" or "homosexual" used literally.
4. "Al's dabbling in those homoerotic medicines." Tim Allen, on HOME IMPROVEMENT; his character should have said "homeopathic."
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Abbreviation for "Guilty Mom Syndrome," a wonderfully flexible term which refers to the syndrome of mothers of young children feeling guilty about their inadequacies and trying to blame the world, but also to onlookers who wonder if that guilt would not be better addressed if the mothers would take responsibility for their own unhappiness.
~ "Doreen just bought Honey Bee another boatload of toys. Now she complains she can't pay the phone bill."
~ "Chalk it up to a very bad case of GMS."