Sapphic

[ saf-ik ]

adjective

1. Sometimes sap·phic.
   1. lesbian ( def 3 ).
   2. of, relating to, or being a woman who is sexually or romantically attracted to other women, used especially as an umbrella term for all women who are attracted to women.
2. pertaining to Sappho or to certain meters or a form of strophe or stanza used by or named after her.

noun

1. Greek Literature. a verse using certain meters or forms used by or named after Sappho.
2. Slang. Sometimes sap·phic. a woman who is sexually or romantically attracted to other women.

Sapphic

/ ˈsæfɪk /

adjective

1. prosody denoting a metre associated with Sappho, consisting generally of a trochaic pentameter line with a dactyl in the third foot
2. of or relating to Sappho or her poetry
3. lesbian

noun

1. prosody a verse, line, or stanza written in the Sapphic form

Usage Note

What's the difference between Sapphic and lesbian? See gay ( def ).

Word History and Origins

Origin of Sapphic¹

First recorded in 1495–1505; from Latin sapphicus, from Greek sapphikós, equivalent to Sapph(ṓ) the name of a famous Greek poet ( Sappho ( def ) ) + -ikos adjective suffix; -ic

Example Sentences

They would later be dubbed a “bloodthirsty” “lesbian she-wolf pack” and—most famously—“a seething, Sapphic septet.”

From The Daily Beast

No doubt she's sitting in her sapphic palace cackling on her money.

From The Daily Beast

The game has a long history in media and popular culture, and its depictions have hardly all been Sapphic.

From The Daily Beast

Already I hear the wanton breezes sighing in Sapphic softness and the forests' elegiac murmur.

From Project Gutenberg

Virgilius Mars wrote in hexameters; Horatius Flaccus in alcaic, sapphic, and anapestic verse.

From Project Gutenberg

The Sapphic strophe of Francisco de la Torre has been not infrequently imitated.

From Project Gutenberg

Lesbian, or Sapphic love is, so Taxel claims, prevalent to an enormous degree among the fashionable ladies of Paris.

From Project Gutenberg

The Asclepiadeian stanza he employs much less frequently, the Sapphic only once, and that with indifferent success.

From Project Gutenberg