Meanings
- uncountableZoophilia regarded as a sexual orientation.
3. The term "zoosexuality", understood as sexual orientation towards animals, has been in use since the 1980s; it was popularized by Miletski's research in the 1990s.
[2009, Monika Bakke, “Human-nonhuman libidinal relations”, in Tom Tyler, Manuela Rossini, editor, Animal Encounters, page 2241 more example
ZSB posters effectively suggest that zoosexuals are misunderstood outcasts who are demonized as deviant because most people lack the mental capacity to understand human-animal sexuality. This point is further crystallized when posters neutralize the deviance of zoosexuality by comparison to other alternative sexualities that have attained some measure of social acceptability.
2017, R.J. Maratea, Philip R. Kavanaugh, and Joshua Tafoya, “Zoosexual Identity Talk and the Disciplining of Discourse”, in Routledge Handbook on Deviance
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
From zoosexual + -ity. First attested in the 1980s.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
zoosexuality. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/zoosexuality
“zoosexuality.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/zoosexuality. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “zoosexuality,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/zoosexuality.
Source: zoosexuality on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.