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Sunday, 1 May 2022

Sunday Rest:lithosexual. Word Not To Use Today.

 Well, the word lithosexual must describe someone who fancies, um, rock (from the Greek word lithos, stone). Mustn't it?

Well, it seems unlikely, so I'd better look it up...

Sunday Rest: lithosexual. It turns out that I'm a bit late with complaining about this word, as apparently there's never been any agreement on what lithosexual means, and nowadays the preferred term for lithosexual is akoisexual, which is a person who fancies someone, but doesn't want that individual to fancy them back.

That sounds a bit odd, but when I remember Mr Darcy I can see exactly where they're coming from.

The origin of the akoi- bit of akoisexual is problematic. Koi can mean tender love in Japanese, and the English  a- prefix would tend to turn this into a negative. So that's possible, anyway.

The sex bit comes from the Latin word secāre means to divide. Which is quite odd, when you come to think about it.



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