Dorland's Medical Dictionary: "Heterosexuality", 1901

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In 1901, Dorland's Medical Dictionary, published in Philadelphia, defined "Heterosexuality" as:


Abnormal or perverted appetite toward the opposite sex.


Dorland's Heterosexuality, a new sort of "appetite," was here clearly identified with an "opposite sex" hunger. But that craving was still aberrant.


Dorland's calling heterosexuality "abnormal or perverted" is, according to the old Oxford English Dictionary's first Supplement (1933), a "misapplied" definition. But contrary to that OED, Dorland's is a perfectly legitimate understanding of heterosexuality according to a traditional procreative norm.[1]


Notes

  1. Adapted from Jonathan Ned Katz, The Invention of Heterosexuality (NY: Dutton, March 1995), page 86, notes 11 and 2 on page ???.


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