bisexual

From bi- +‎ -sexual. Attested since about 1808 as a synonym in botany for "hermaphroditic" ("having male and female parts").[1] First used of sexuality in Richard von Krafft-Ebing's 1886 Psychopathia Sexualis (in German) and Charles Gilbert Chaddock's 1892 English translation thereof, due to the theory that people were naturally attracted only to the opposite sex and the brain or mind of a person attracted to both sexes (or to the same sex) must be partly of the opposite sex and thus bisexual in the original sense (intersex).[2]

• (US) IPA^(key): /baɪˈsɛk.ʃu.əl/

bisexual (comparative more bisexual, superlative most bisexual)

1. (of humans or other animals) Sexually attracted to both men and women (by a narrow definition) or to people of multiple or any genders (by a broad definition; compare pansexual).
2. (chiefly botany) Having both male and female parts or functions.
   1. (botany) Of flowers: having both pollen and seeds.
   2. (botany) Of sporophytes: having both male and female organs.
   3. (botany) Of gametophytes: producing both eggs and sperm.
   4. (botany) Of fungi: producing both the "female" ascogonium and the "male" antheridium.
   5. (rare) Hermaphroditic/intersex, being both male and female, or alternating between being male and being female.

      Midrash and Zohar present Adam as hermaphroditic or bisexual.

      • 2004, Lois Bragg, Oedipus Borealis: The Aberrant Body in Old Icelandic Myth and Saga (→ISBN):

        To say that Loki is bisexual means that he readily alternates between the male and female sexes, becoming female at will or as needed.

      • 2013, Zainab Bahrani, Women of Babylon: Gender and Representation in Mesopotamia (→ISBN):

        Among the arguments put forth for Ishtar's hermaphroditic or bisexual character is the practice of transvestism in religious rites associated with her (e.g. Harris 2000: 170; Groneberg 1986: 39).

      • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:bisexual.

• (sexually attracted to both men and women): AC/DC (slang), ambidextrous (jocular), bi (colloquial), omnifutuent
• (botany: having male and female organs): perfect, hermaphrodite
• See also Thesaurus:bisexual

• heteroflexible, homoflexible

• (sexual orientations) sexual orientation; asexual (-ity, ace), bisexual (-ity, bi), demisexual (-ity), graysexual (-ity), heterosexual (-ity, straight), homosexual (-ity, gay, lesbian), omnisexual (-ity), pansexual (-ity, pan), plurisexual (-ity), polysexual (-ity), robosexual (-ity), sapiosexual (-ity), androsexual (-ity), gynesexual (-ity) ^{(Category: en:Sexual orientations)}

• bi-curious
• biromantic
• bisexualism, bisexualist
• bisexualize, bisexualization

bisexual (plural bisexuals)

1. A person who is bisexual.
   • 1984, Women and deviance, page 63:

     Several chapters are devoted to the investigations of the origins and influences prevalent in the life of a bisexual with the latter portion of the book devoted to three extensive in-depth interviews with three bisexuals.

2. (botany, rare) A plant or fungus, or part thereof, which is bisexual.

• bi (colloquial)
• See also Thesaurus:bisexual

• LGBT

• (sexual orientations) sexual orientation; asexual (-ity, ace), bisexual (-ity, bi), demisexual (-ity), graysexual (-ity), heterosexual (-ity, straight), homosexual (-ity, gay, lesbian), omnisexual (-ity), pansexual (-ity, pan), plurisexual (-ity), polysexual (-ity), robosexual (-ity), sapiosexual (-ity), androsexual (-ity), gynesexual (-ity) ^{(Category: en:Sexual orientations)}

bisexual (masculine and feminine plural bisexuals)

1. bisexual

bisexual m or f (plural bisexuals)

1. bisexual

• bisexualitat

bisexual (not comparable)

1. bisexual

bisexual (plural bisexuales)

1. bisexual

From French bisexuel.

• IPA^(key): /ˌbi.se.ksuˈal/

bisexual m or n (feminine singular bisexuală, masculine plural bisexuali, feminine and neuter plural bisexuale)

1. bisexual

bisexual m (plural bisexuali, feminine equivalent bisexuală)

1. bisexual

• bisexualitate

bi- +‎ sexual

• Rhymes: -al

bisexual (plural bisexuales)

1. bisexual

bisexual m or f (plural bisexuales)

1. bisexual