Lesbian /ˈlezbiən/（同性恋女子）

Lesbian now means a female homosexual（同性恋者） or a woman who is primarily（天生） attracted to other women.The word used to mean the residents of the Isle（岛） of Lesbos, a Greek island, where lived a woman poet Sappho in 600 B. C.

lesbian一词现在指女同性恋者，或者天生被女人吸引的女性。这个词原本是指住在希腊莱斯博斯岛（Lesbos）上的居民。公元前六百年，岛上曾住着一名女诗人萨福。

Although much of her poetry had been destroyed by religious fundamentalists（原教旨主义者）, the few poems of Sappho that remain speak clearly her love and infatuation（迷恋） with women.

【资料图】

虽然她的大部分诗作都被宗教原教旨主义者们所焚毁，但是从残存下来的一小部分中仍然可以清楚地看出她对女性的爱和迷恋。

Being referred to as the tenth Muse by Plato, Sappho is the first lesbian ever documented. Prior to the word lesbian gaining popularity, women who loved other women were often called “sapphic”, and their love, defined as “sapphistry”.

被柏拉图称为第十位缪斯女神的萨福，是第一位被记录下来的女同性恋者。在lesbian一词流行之前，女同性恋者常被称为“萨福女”，而此种感情则被称为“萨福爱”。

Gay /ɡeɪ/（同性恋男子）

The word gay, derived from the Old French word “gai”，originally means joyful or carefree, like the famous line in the poem Daffodils by William Wordsworth：“A poet could not but be gay in such a jocund company.”

单词gay源自法语的gai，本义是指快乐和无忧，如同英国诗人华兹华斯《致水仙》中的著名诗句：“诗人对此殊激昂，独在花中事幽默”（郭沫若译）。

It is around 1920s or 1930s that the word began to have a new meaning. A gay man is not just a man addicted to sexual pleasure, but a homosexual man.

到了20世纪二三十年代，这个词开始有了新的含义，gay man不仅指沉迷性爱欢愉的男人，还可以指男同性恋者。

It seems that the word homosexual is much too clinical（临床的）, suggesting a physical disorder, so the word gay is preferred for its association with mirth（欢乐） and freedom.

因为homosexual一词似乎太像医学术语，给人以机体紊乱的印象，所以更多的人偏爱用gay这个让人联想到快乐和自由的词汇。

The abstract noun gaiety has largely cleared of the sexual connotation as with the word gay, and keeps its definition related to festive and celebration.

而抽象名词gaiety已经基本上将性的含义完全清除了，保留下来的是和节日及庆祝相关联的喜悦心情。