Etymology

heterosexual

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Today it means: Sexually attracted to members of the opposite sex. Full definition →

English sexual ← Latin sexuālis ← Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.?
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*sem-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*sḿ̥teros
  3. Proto-Hellenic*hə́teros
  4. Ancient Greekἕτερος (héteros)
  5. Englishhetero-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*sek-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*séks-u-s
  8. Proto-Italic*seksus
  9. Proto-Indo-European*sek-
  10. Proto-Indo-European*sékh₁yeti
  11. Proto-Italic*sekaō
  12. Latinsecō
  13. Latinsecāre?
  14. Latinsexus
  15. Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
  16. Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
  17. Latinsexuālis
  18. Englishsexual
  19. English todayheterosexual

From hetero- + -sexual. Earliest citation from 1892, in C.G. Craddock's translation of Krafft-Ebbing's Psychopathia Sexualis.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.