sapphic

1. not comparableLesbian, relating to lesbianism, or (broadly) to women who are attracted (not necessarily exclusively) to women.

   Perhaps the queer, unnatural, and possibly disturbing conjunctions of the trans and nonbinary sapphic can help to do just that.

   2023 July 26, Susan S. Lancer, SAME/DIFFERENCE? TOWARD A SAPPHIC/NONBINARY SEXUALITY OF HISTORY, in https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/hith.12319

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   Clinton and I became peripherally involved with a pair of Leckford Road girls who, principally sapphic in their interests, would arrange for sessions of group frolic.

   2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22

   [...] and rumor had it that the Margo—Eve relationship was inspired by the bisexual Bankhead and her Skin of Our Teeth understudy [...] (The 1947 film version teamed Humphrey Bogart with sapphic stars Barbara Stanwyck and Alexis Smith.)

   2013, Boze Hadleigh, Broadway Babylon: Glamour, Glitz, and Gossip on the Great White Way, Back Stage Books, →ISBN, page 194

   Her lyrics are deeply personal and wide reaching and she weaves in indignation at the state of American politics while simultaneously exploring her identity as a black sapphic [pansexual] woman.

   2018 December 10, Jess Taylor Weissner, review of Janelle Monae, Dirty Computer, in The Courier, page 18

plural sapphics

1. Alternative letter-case form of Sapphic.

   April 29: Thao & The Get Down Stay Down host local rock sapphics Kera & the Lesbians.

   2016 April 25, DT News [Los Angeles Downtown News], page 17

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   Though they will not satisfy Mr. T. S. Omond's rules of quantity, and cannot be expected to reach Swinburne's exquisite sense of its balance, they give far more idea of the rhythm of Sappho than the body of English sapphics by other writers.

   1909, The Academy and Literature

   Statius, in the Silvae, does offer two “lyric” poems, one in alcaics and one in sapphics, but lyric poetry in any form and of any consequence does not recur until the Christian hymns of St. Ambrose and Prudentius, ...

   2002, Michael Paschalis, Horace and Greek Lyric Poetry, Michael Paschalis, →ISBN, page 1

alternative Sapphick

1. not comparableRelating to the Greek poetess Sappho from Lesbos or her poetry.
2. not comparablecommunicationsOf a certain kind of verse reputed to have been invented by Sappho, consisting of five metrical feet, of which the first, fourth, and fifth are trochees, the second is a spondee, and the third a dactyl.
3. not comparableAlternative letter-case form of sapphic.

plural Sapphics · alternative Sapphick

1. communicationsA Sapphic verse.

   His Sapphics, on the story of Bacchus and Ariadne, are easy, elegant, and poetical.

   1824, Vicesimus Knox, The Works of Vicesimus Knox, D.D.: With a Biographical Preface

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   The first line (which goes by the name of Aristophanes) is a Sapphic without the initial trochees.

   1887, Horace, Horace: The Odes, Carmen Seculare, and Epodes, page 174

   "A real Sapphic," said Crane, dropping into a poetical tone, as an elocutionist does when he is hungry for an opportunity to recite a favorite sketch.

   1888, Maurice Thompson, A Fortnight of Folly, page 41

2. A person who is sapphic.

   There are many of us (yes, even in Utah) who are more style-conscious, socially involved and culturally aware Sapphics than the common opinion dictates.

   2011 March 17, Annalisa Millo, “A great year for lesbians”, in QSaltake, number 176, page 33

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   'Very good,” he said, 'although I must confess that the older I get, the less I am able to enjoy the company of women – except of course our own dear Enid who is so notorious a Sapphic as to be virtually hors concours.

   2004, Simon Callow, Being an Actor, page 9

   Are you a fan of hate-to-love? Roommates? Royalty romances? Geology puns? Sapphics? Her Royal Highness has all of this and more. After Millie discovers her best friend turned maybe girlfriend kissing someone else, she decides to flee […]

   2019 Summer, Gretal M. (19), review of Her Royal Highness, by Rachel Hawkins in The Chuckanut Reader, page 71