Sotadic Zone

proper noun

A region of the world, approximately defined as a strip of Afroeurasia from the Mediterranean region eastward as well as the entirety of the Americas, in which male homosexuality was supposed to be societally prevalent.

Meanings

proper nounthe Sotadic Zone
  1. historicalA region of the world, approximately defined as a strip of Afroeurasia from the Mediterranean region eastward as well as the entirety of the Americas, in which male homosexuality was supposed to be societally prevalent.
    1 more example

    Within the Sotadic Zone the Vice is popular and endemic, held at the worst to be a mere peccadillo, whilst the races to the North and South of the limits here defined practice it only sporadically amid the opprobrium of their fellows who, as a rule, are physically incapable of performing the operation and look upon it with the liveliest disgust.

    1894, Richard Francis Burton, “Terminal Essay”, in The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, volume X, London: H.S. Nichols & Co.

Origin

Coined by British explorer, army officer, writer and scholar Richard Francis Burton in 1886.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Sotadic Zone. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sotadic%20Zone

MLA

“Sotadic Zone.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sotadic%20Zone. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Sotadic Zone,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sotadic%20Zone.

Source: Sotadic Zone on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.