Uranian

The senses relating to sexuality are adapted from German Urning, Urnigtum, referring to Aphrodite Urania, coined by German writer Karl Heinrich Ulrichs in 1864. By the 1900s, the term was largely supplanted by homosexual (see that entry for more).

• Rhymes: -eɪniən

Uranian (plural Uranians)

1. (science fiction) An inhabitant of the planet Uranus.
2. (archaic) A male homosexual. [German from 1864]

   Synonyms: gay, homosexual

   • 2003, Chuck Stewart, Gay and Lesbian Issues: A Reference Handbook, page 138:

     Carpenter was disappointed by these meetings with Whitman but began to integrate a positive homosexual view into his socialist writings. Carpenter saw the Uranian (homosexual) spirit to be more enlightened than that of the common man and believed that Uranians were the new prophets of the coming social revolution.

   • 2008, Thomas Bohache, Christology From the Margins, page 194:

     One who engages in the love that dare not speak its name. Uranian. Homosexual. Invert. Gay. Lesbian. Queer.

Uranian (not comparable)

1. Relating to the muse Urania.
2. (astronomy) Of or relating to the planet Uranus.
3. (historical, 19th century) Third-gender.
4. (archaic) Homosexual.

   Synonyms: gay, homosexual

   • 1983, Eric Garber and Lyn Paleo, Uranian worlds: a reader's guide to alternative sexuality in science fiction and fantasy

     The title of this bibliography is derived from the nineteenth- century word for homosexual — Uranian. The word was coined by the early German homosexual emancipationist, Karl Ulrichs, and was popularly used through the First World War.

   • 1996, Linda Dowling, Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford, page 134:

     Before these ideals would once again become available to "homosexuality" as a positive social identity, however, the Uranian modality of male love would be rejected by the avant-garde itself as an outworn fashion.

   • 2003, Chuck Stewart, Gay and Lesbian Issues: A Reference Handbook, page 138:

     Carpenter was disappointed by these meetings with Whitman but began to integrate a positive homosexual view into his socialist writings. Carpenter saw the Uranian (homosexual) spirit to be more enlightened than that of the common man and believed that Uranians were the new prophets of the coming social revolution.

5. Of or relating to a group of German homosexual artists.

• Uranian on Wikipedia.Wikipedia