urning

/ ˈɜːnɪŋ /

noun

1. a rare word for (esp a male) homosexual

Word History and Origins

Origin of urning¹

C20: from German, from Urania (Aphrodite); compare uranism

Example Sentences

Distraught and agitated, the young man had come to confess himself an urning, a word used in Germany to refer to homosexual men.

From Scientific American

“Who would want to be called an ‘urning’?” he complains, for example, of a term invented by a 19th-century sexologist.

From New York Times

Urning est vox Germanica ab Ulrichs inventa.

From Project Gutenberg

It is a tense, well-constructed play, dealing with the plight of an Urning among men.

From Time Magazine Archive

The Captive�Helen Menken as an Urning ; strange, artistic.

From Time Magazine Archive