Glossary
What they said.
How they said it.
Aesthete
A follower of Aestheticism. Aesthetes are commonly disliked in both the heterosexual and queer community for their stereotype as feminine, sensitive, vain, and obnoxiously artistic. The word is often made an equivalent to the dandy, who is a man more concerned with appearance—in fashion and public image—than other pursuits. Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly championed early Victorian dandyism; Oscar Wilde embodied the late Victorian dandy and aesthete. They are also known more rarely as dudes.
Let the listless, orris-scented æsthete in love with a shadow, scourge me after this for the burning, maddening passion which his virile beauty excited in my breast.
Anonymous, Teleny (1883), p141.
But there had always been a fine streak of æstheticism in his complex composition.
E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899)
The Lady Nancyish, rich young men of higher or lower society; twaddling æsthetic sophistries; stinking with perfume like cocottes!
Edward Prime-Stevenson, Imre: A Memorandum (1906) p116.
In my university course in aesthetics, the professor lamented that art tends to make its devotees immoral. He probably had in mind the notorious frequency of homosexuality among aesthetes.
Jennie June, The Female-Impersonators (1922) p17
Affected
Related to dramatics and femininity. An “affected” male character often acts with more passion than masculinity traditionally permits.
‘Cyprian dear,’ mimicking the affected tone in which this had been said, and adding, in his own voice, ‘of course it must be Cyprian Brome‘
Marc-Andre Raffalovich, A Willing Exile (1890), Volume 1, p133.
[He] displayed certain graceful, slightly affected movements of the kind which may cause a person to be credited—or taxed—with possessing the ‘artistic temperament.’
Henry B. Fuller, Bertram Cope’s Year (1919), p202.
[…] a young man whose cadaverous appearance, pallor and affected mannerisms proclaimed his eccentricates.
Andre Tellier, Twilight Men (1931), p215.
Art Theory
Romanticism
Romanticism laid an anti-industrialist foundation with a focus on nostalgia, the idealized natural world, emotion, sensation, and imagination, and myth and history. Key figures include John Keats, Lord Byron, and Percy & Mary Shelley.
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood sought inspiration from Romantic ideals and early Renaissance art. Their art combined Romantic Theory with distinct, atypical style typified in idealized medievalism, the voluminous hair of Jane Morris, and the colorful textiles of her husband, William Morris. The group evolved into the Arts and Craft Movement. Key figures include Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and Willian Holman Hunt.
If you walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in your medieval hand
W. S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan, Patience (1881), p11.
I found reproductions of such works as “Love and Death” and “The Blessed Damozel,” in dusty frames and different parallels.
E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899)
Symbolism
Symbolist works are not meant to depict distinct symbols, concepts, or allegories but to evoke inexpressible, feeling-based responses: for example, an image is not simply death but the atmosphere of despair. They rebelled against established structure, form, and trope by tending towards free verse, vagueness, and affectation. Key figures include Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Verlaine, and Arthur Rimbaud.
Decadence
The Decadents shared much with the Symbolists, who they developed from. A core separation is in the adoption of many Aesthetic beliefs: art’s lack of morality, life’s lack of meaning deeper than sensation, and beauty detached from truth and reality. Key figures include Joris-Karl Huysmans, Algernon Charles Swinburne, and Max Beerbohm.
What book is it? ‘Poems and Ballads?’ And so suspiciously like the copy Mr. Swinburne gave me.
E. F. Benson,Dodo’s Daughter (1914), p83.
Aestheticism
The slogan “Arts for Art’s Sake” summarized Aestheticism’s core: that art is valued for its beauty and innate amorality rather than its ascribed social or political meaning. Aestheticism rejected industrial callousness and ugliness, Victorian moralism, and conventional productive values. A follower of Aestheticism, called an aesthete or commonly a dandy or dude, was someone who lived for art, aesthetic, and sensation to the sometimes complete rejection of societal norms—shunning productive work, marriage, gender norms, and responsibility to prioritize artistic experience. Key figures include Oscar Wilde, Arthur Symons, and Walter Pate
Walter H. Pater, Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873), p 213.
[…] for art comes to you professing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass, and simply for those moments’ sake.
It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. […] All art is quite useless.
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) preface.
Art for art’s sake is a vile catchword, but I confess it appeals to me.
E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899)
Japonism
Orientalism and exoticism exploded in the late Victorian period when Japan’s trade and tourism businesses became more accessible. Kimono, ukiyo-e, accessories, and furniture became typical accents of Aesthetic design alongside blue-and-white pottery from China.
Such a judge of blue-and-white and other kinds of pottery
W. S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan, Patience (1881), p17.
Artistic Temperament
Related to aestheticism, femininity, and otherness. Artists have different values and perceptions, and, in particular, different social quirks.
Have no fear—though the artistic-temperament allows a man to fear.
Edward Prime-Stevenson, A Matter of Temperament (1896), p178.
It is, however, among artists, at that time and later, that homosexuality may most notably be traced.
Havelock Ellis, Sexual Inversion (1915), p32.
“Oh, Denny likes different things to what we do […]“
A. T. Fitzroy, Despised & Rejected (1918), p189.
“How wonderful the artistic temperament is!”
[He] displayed certain graceful, slightly affected movements of the kind which may cause a person to be credited—or taxed—with possessing the ‘artistic temperament.’
Henry B. Fuller, Bertram Cope’s Year (1919), p202.
Bisexual
Depending on context and era, can mean loving both male and female people or being both male and female. The current understanding of bisexuality to include people outside the gender binary emerged in the late 1970-1980’s.
But the individual androgyne or gynander remains, down to death, to a greater or less degree bisexual. […] an androgyne or gynander is part man and part woman.
Jennie June,The Female Impersonators (1922), p15.
“Don, he’s bi-sexual, if you know what I mean. Plays two ways”.
Andre Tellier, Twilight Men (1931), p156.
Blackmail
It was fairly common for men to be blackmailed by sex workers or others, and it was involved heavily in the public sodomy trials of Oscar Wilde and Jacques d’Adelswärd-Fersen.
“I have a letter written already. […] If you don’t help me, I will send it. You know what the result will be.”
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), p91.
“That man has been a forger and a blackmailer. He leads a regular double life that you don’t know any thing about.”
Edward Prime-Stevenson, Left to Themselves (1891), p284. Also see: pp114-115, pp281-282.
This horrible, infamous, anonymous threat
Anonymous, Teleny (1893), p73.
“Blackmail, I suppose; an honest man paying through the nose for some of the capers of his youth.”
Robert Louis Stevenson,Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1886), pp9-10.
‘I was but threatening—’
E. M. Forster,Maurice (1971) p225.
‘—for blackmail.’
Once a blackmailer to whom I would not hand out the three dollars demanded made good his threat to turn me over to a policeman, who took my red tie as conclusive evidence that I was a fairie.
Jennie June, Autobiography of an Androgyne (1919), p 122.
Cross-Dressing
A punishable and outlawed social taboo, though common in queer communities and the sex trade.
To be honest, in addition to the odd inclination for cross-dressing that tribades have, I had also noticed that many of them have to do it because of a bodily defect or an ugly appearance that a woman’s wardrobe cannot conceal. But virtually all of them do so because of their desire to be men.
The Countess, Secret Confessions of a Parisian (1874).
[…] under Fred’s directions I assumed a charming female costume. He acted as lady’s maid, fitted my bust with a pair of false bubbies, frizzed my hair with curling irons, and fixed me up by adding a profusion of false plaits behind.
Jack Saul, Sins of the Cities of the Plain (1881), pp90-91.
Whatever the sex of this strange being was, he or she had on a tight-fitting dress of a changing colour—[…]
‘And that other one there, with black ringlets, accroche-cœurs, in a dark blue velvet tea-gown, with bare arms and shoulders, is that lovely woman a man, too?’
‘Yes, he is an Italian and a Marquis […]’
Anonymous, Teleny (1893), pp100-101.
Well, the end of it was that by dinner-time I had been transformed altogether, and when I looked at myself in me long glass in Cecile’s dressing-room I saw the reflection of what anyone would have taken for a smartly-dressed girl
Anonymous, The Memoirs of a Voluptuary (1905), pp54-55.
Endeavors toward [cross-dressing] are most enjoyable—or least offensive—when they show frank and patent inadequacy. It was Arthur Lemoyne’s fortune—or misfortune—to do his work all too well.
Henry Blake Fuller, Bertram Cope’s Year (1919), p201.
That morning, however, I did my best with a very fair razor which the colonel had left behind in my room; then I turned out the lady’s wardrobe and the cardboard boxes, and took my choice. I have fair hair, and at the time it was rather long. […] I was not sorry to hear Raffles return as I was busy adding a layer of powder to my heated countenance.
E. W. Hornung, A Thief in the Night (1905), “The Rest Cure.”
Almost all the men go in women’s clothes, or drag, as it is called. They wear magnificent gowns and take along a boy-friend to dance with.
André Tellier, Twilight Men (1931) p149.
Dioning
Heterosexual. A term originating from Karl Heinrich Ulrich’s 1862 theory that the Dionäer, or Dioning, was a man who loved women. Inversely, the Uranier, or Urning, was a man who loved men. He later added Urninde for women who loved women.
Or was he sexually entirely normal and Dionian?
Edward Prime-Stevenson,Imre: A Memorandum(1906), p66.
Dream Friend
A common manifestation of queer yearning or companionship.
[…] you look like the dream-friend I was once bound unto, soul and body
Edward Prime-Stevenson, “When Art Was Young” (1883), p387.
He could die for such a friend [in his dream] […] neither death nor distance nor crossness could part them
E. M. Forster, Maurice (1971), p22.
I created in my childish day-dreams an ideal companion […] my ‘dream friend’ […] that ‘other boy’
Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man (1927), p11.
If only this dream-friendship could materialize into an actual human bond
Reginald Underwood,Bachelor’s Hall (1934), p91.
Double Life
It’s an apt and common allegory: a person who hosts a secret second life with completely separate lines of friends, values, and so on, that they fiercely defend against discovery.
I’m Forrester at home; Fisher in the country.
F. C. Burnand, The Colonel (1881)
That man has been a forger and a blackmailer. He leads a regular double life that you don’t know any thing about.
Edward Prime-Stevenson, Left to Themselves (1891), p284.
You have invented a very useful younger brother called Ernest, in order that you may be able to come up to town as often as you like. I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order that I may be able to go down into the country whenever I choose.
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
[…] I told him so without reserve; […] doggedly, defiantly, through my teeth, as one who had tried to live honestly and failed. […] I gave him chapter and verse of my hopeless struggle, my inevitable defeat; for hopeless and inevitable they were to a man with my record, even though that record was written only in one’s own soul.
E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899)
Also see:
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) by Oscar Wilde.
Earnest
Uncommon, but can mean homosexual especially when phrased as “is he earnest?” The most likely correlation is the French word for Uranian/Urning, Uraniste, which is pronounced like “earnest.”
Also see:
Oscar Wilde’s play of double lives, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
John Gambril Nicholson’s collection of queer poems, Love in Earnest (1892).
Fairy
Spelling varies. A queer person, and especially a gay man. Jennie June identifies fairies as specifically androgynous and passive sex workers—primarily those assigned male at birth.
The ‘fairie’ is a youthful androgyne or other passive invert […] whom natural predestination or other circumstances led to adopt the profession of the fille de joie.
Jenny June, Autobiography of an Androgyne (1918), p7.
They’re only fairies.
Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited (1944), p115.
Fashion
Certain characteristics of appearance were associated with aesthetes and homosexuality. In particular, a clean-shaven face, long hair, aesthetic clothing with breeches and flowing garments, and so on.
[…] I saw you in enthusiastic conversation with some long-haired creatures — a perfect crowd of the Intense School — and I couldn’t get near you.
F. C. Burnand,The Colonel (1881)
I see his indolent, athletic figure; his pale, sharp, clean-shaven features; his curly black hair; his strong, unscrupulous mouth.
E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899)
His face was smooth-shaven, his eyes large and melancholy, his whimsical, sensitive mouth was upcurved at the corners, his waving chestnut hair was longer than was the fashion.
John T. Wheelwright, “The Roman Bath” (1920), pp316-317 in The Best Short Stories of 1920 (1921).
Flowers
Green Carnation
Associated with Oscar Wilde and his followers, who often wore them. A play on how the flower appears “unnatural” despite being so.
A man is unnatural if he never falls in love with a woman
Robert Hichens, The Green Carnation (1891), 125p.
Unnatural minds are far more common […] more natural than people choose to suppose.
Robert Hichens, The Green Carnation (1891), 127p.
Sunflower & Calla Lily
Flowers championed by the aesthetic movement and largely associated with Wilde.
A languid love of lilies does not blight me!
W. S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan, Patience (1881), p10.
[…] I have brought with me my work, as you call it; a quaint design in sunflower and apple blossoms
John T. Wheelhouse, “A Sewing ‘School For Scandal’” (1888), p74.
Also see:
James Hadley aesthete teapots (1882)
Edward Linley Sambourne’s “Punch’s Fancy Portraits. — No. 37” (25 June 1881) of Wilde, and many other Wildean caricatures.
Poppy
Opium from poppies was associated with several Decadent artists. In addition, when Euryalus, the lover of Nisus in Virgil’s Aeneid, dies, he is compared to a poppy hanging its head.
Love’s deepest poppy for my soul’s dear guest
Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Tuberose & Meadowsweet (1885), p43, but also Cyril & Lionel (1884), p29.
If you walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in your medieval hand
W. S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan, Patience (1881), p11.
Friend
An equivalent to the word “lover” in some cases. “Special friendships” and “passionate friendships” are often but not exclusively used to describe juvenile queer relationships.
‘If I am anything to you, Joseph, now is the time when my presence should be some slight comfort. We need not speak, but we will keep together.’
Bernard Taylor, Joseph and His Friend (1870), p271.
Joseph clung the closer to his friend’s arm
On that day Engel gave me his badge with the number that was used instead of a name and that each inmate wore on his sleeve. This simple number, 598, spoke volumes to me and was precious to me because my friend had touched it every day.
The Countess, Secret Confessions of a Parisian (1874) in Queer Lives (2007), p72.
I answered: Friend most fair,
Marc-Andre Raffalovich, In Fancy Dress (1886), p58, also p16, p17, p78.
Do you now hear these footsteps on the stair?
Love comes and whistles, whistles as he comes
He pauses by the sweet geraniums….
My friend grew so used to me that he couldn’t do without me, no less than I could do without him. He had never been so loved, and he had never experienced as much pleasure as I offered him.
Anonymous, The Novel of an Invert (1889, 1896) in Queer Lives (2007), p199.
[…] Oh! friend, my heart doth yearn for thee. And now his lovely image never left my eyes, the touch of his soft hand was still on mine, I even felt his scented breath upon my lips
Anonymous,Teleny (1893), pp56-7.
Your eyes see choirs of saints attend
Edward Perry Warren, Itamos (1903), p96.
With you upon your altar Friend.
“Oh, my brother, Oh, my friend!’ exclaimed Imre softly, putting his arm about me and holding me to his heart. […] ‘I love thee, as thou lovest me.‘
Edward Prime-Stevenson,Imre: A Memorandum (1906), pp204-5.
As he alighted his name had been called out of dreams. The violence went out of his heart, and a purity that he had never imagined dwelt there instead. His friend had called him.
E. M. Forster, Maurice (1971), p66.
Then Alan smiled up at his friend. ‘Good-night, Dennis….’
A. T. Fitzroy, Despised and Rejected (1918), p290.
‘Good-night, boy….’ He tightened the pressure of his hand round Alan’s arm.
Game
Primarily phrased as ‘the game’ or “playing the game.” Likely lifted from the equivalent heterosexual concept, it refers to the act of pursing a romantic or sexual relationship.
There is a game
Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Tuberose and Meadowsweet (1885), p83.
By men called love or shame
Where two must play yet both or one can win
Now I was to take part in the game.
E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899)
“I’m hooked on the game” as “Je suis piqué au jeu”
Jacques d’ Adelswärd-Fersen, Messes noires: Lord Lyllian (1905), p3.
Don, he’s bi-sexual, if you know what I mean. Plays two ways.
Andre Tellier, Twilight Men (1931) p156.
Greece
A point of historical validation of queerness for many authors. Greece and its derivative words, such as Grecian and Hellenic, are often used to strictly refer to Greece’s queer culture rather than the full country.
Great beauty in Greek marble bound
Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Tuberose and Meadowsweet (1885), p5., but also see “Hellenic” and “Grecian” in In Fancy Dress (1886), p95.
I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely […] we would forget all the maladies of mediaevalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal”
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
Love can revive the old Hellenic day
Edward Perry Warren, Itamos (1903), p20, but also p47, p76, p84.
His head […] with its close-cut golden hair, carried out his Hellenic exterior.
Edward Prime-Stevenson, Imre: A Memorandum (1907), p43.
Greek Figures
Apollo & Hyacinthus
Hyacinthus was the young lover of Apollo. The flower hyacinth was said to have grown from his blood when slain.
When I call Hyacinth or Helen fair, / And Paris-like I love, or like Apollo / O do not think me false, or my words hollow
Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Tuberose and Meadowsweet (1885), p56, but also Apollo on p10 and p58. Also in Cyril and Lionel (1884) p91 and 101.
I know Hyacinthus, whom Apollo loved so madly, was you in Greek days
Oscar Wilde, Letter to Lord Alfred Douglas (January 1883)
The ancient Greeks, who were in every sense a nation filled with the highest instincts of art, undoubtedly thought so, as their sculpture and poetry bear witness in their never-tiring adulations of Adonis and Narcissus, Hyacinthus, Ganymede and Hylas, to mention only a few examples.
Anonymous, The Memoirs of a Voluptuary (1905), p94.
Achilles & Patroclus
Greek soldiers and lovers popularized by Homer’s Illiad. Achilles, considered the greatest warrior in Greece, refused to return to the Trojan war. Patroclus dons Achilles’ armor and takes his place on the battlefield, where he is killed by Hector. Achilles avenges him violently and is later killed by Paris.
‘Achilles sulking in his bunk!’
E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899)
Narcissus
The man who rejected all romantic advances and punished fall in unrequited love with his own reflection. The flower of the same name also carries a queer weight when referenced. Dandies were often compared to him for their personal fastidious, self-absorption, and disinterest in marriage or courting.
I am a very Narcissus!”
W. S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan, Patience (1881), p30.
And love, could young Narcissus see thy face / […] His heart would surely practise like my one / Soul’s worship in the temple of the flesh.
Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Tuberose and Meadowsweet (1885), p22, also p26.
O my love, you whom I cherish above all things, white narcissus in an unmown field, think of the burden which falls to you, a burden which love alone can make light.
Oscar Wilde, Letter to Lord Alfred Douglas (May 1895), also in “The Garden of Eros.”
Plato
Plato’s theories of love were often cycled as a method of queer companionship opposite the Hellenic ideal of a sexual relationship between elder mentor and young pupil.
An attachment a la Plato for a bashful young potato
W. S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan, Patience (1881).
Berts is a stale old man, who can’t make up his mind whether he wants to marry Esther or not. I am even worse. I am interested in Plato.
E. F. Benson, Dodo’s Daughter (1914), p89.
It
Usually phrased “is he it?” Also used as a derogatory pronoun.
It seems to be getting mildly sentimental.
John T. Wheelwright, “A Cure for Dudes” in George Riddle’s Readings (1888), p46.
Somebody was ‘it.’ I would never for a moment imagined it could be…you.
Andre Tellier, Twilight Men (1931) p114.
Military
Army
Although the Navy has more notoriety as a queer space, any military branch or career is frequently invoked by cultural association with sex, casual sexual liaisons, sexual desirability, its homosocial environment.
I was saying how common sodomy is in the Army. Our old major was the first to introduce me to it.
Jack Saul, Sins of the Cities of the Plain (1881), p84.
Soldiers are fantasy objects for many inverts, and in the evening, not even under the cover of darkness, when a soldier is alone or with a comrade, he tries to solicit a client through a glance or a gesture. His smart and tight-fitting clothing has the expected effect.
Marc-André Raffalovich, Uranisme et Unisexualité (1896) tr. Nancy Erber & William Peniston.
He was a former captain in the Piedmont cavalry, having served in all the Italian wars
Anonymous, The Novel of an Invert (1889) in Queer Lives, p202. Anonymous “loved dearly” (p207) this man as well as a sergeant that he “ended up loving […] more than anyone else in the world’” (p197).
That gentleman used to be a captain in our regiment. He was asked to leave the service. […] On account of […] his little love-affair with a…. cadet. You understand? […] You know, or perhaps you do not know, how specially sensitive… indeed implacable.. the Service is on that topic.”
Edward Prime-Stevenson, Imre: A Memorandum (1906), pp70-71.
Especially contrary to the notion that the man-loving man is always effeminate in body and temper, stands the fact that in scarcely any other profession—in no other walk of practical life—has the full sexualism of Uranistic passion been more general than in the ranks of soldiers and sailors. We might say that in no other one is it so large.
Edward Prime-Stevenson, The Intersexes (1910), p184.
Navy
The navy and other nautical institutions are known for their sexual tolerance and promiscuity to a much greater degree than other military branches.
Some men like soldiers, others sailors; some are fond of tightrope dancers, others of dandies.
Anonymous, Teleny (1893), p93.
But how different sailors are!
E. M. Forster, “The Obelisk” in The Life to Come and Other Stories (1987), p126.
Drunken sailors can be very tiresome! Censor’d.
Stephen Tennant, Leaves from a Missionary’s Notebook (1929),
Locations
Capri
An island known for its tolerance of homosexuality. Several queer artists lived or visited it, including John Singer Sargent, Jacques d’Adelswärd-Fersen, Compton Mackenzie, Oscar Wilde, E. W. Hornung, and Somerset Maugham.
[…] he had sat, as Tiberius, in a garden at Capri, reading the shameful books of Elephantis
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891).
[…] we were bound for Capri, which was clearly the island of the Lotos-eaters, that we would bask there together, ‘and for a while forget.’
E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899).
[…] a woman with a tailored suit and a heavy walking stick asked Jeanne if she should be at all interested in a week-end on Capri.
André Tellier, A Magnificent Sin (1930).
[…] then we went to Capri where we had a vacation-time together.
Kay Boyle, Gentlemen, I Address You Privately (1933), p22.
- Capri is a setting in:
- For the Pleasure of His Company (1903) by Charles Warren Stoddard.
- Prinz Kuckuck: Lehen, Taten, Meinungen und Hollenfahrt eines Wollustlings (1907) by Otto Julius Bierbaum.
- Ein Junger Platos: Aus dem Leben eines Entgleisten (1913) by Konradin.
- Vestal Fire (1927) by Compton Mackenzie (as Sirene).
- Extraordinary Women (1928) by Compton Mackenzie (as Sirene).
Harlem
A portion of Northern Manhattan with a large Black and queer community. A key location of the Harlem Renaissance.
In Harlem I found courage and joy and tolerance.
Blair Niles, Strange Brother (1931).
Piccadilly
A fashionable street in London known to be walked by rent boys.
Scene: the library of a house in Piccadilly
Oscar Wilde, The Critic as Artist (1891).
If you walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in your medieval hand
W. S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan, Patience (1881), p11.
London, the way of Piccadilly
Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Tuberose & Meadowsweet (1885), p18.
[…] we went downstairs forthwith, and so to the Albany arm-in-arm.
E. W. Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman (1899)
Sodom
One of the pair of cities destroyed by God for their immorality. Although Gomorrah is often referenced alongside Sodom, the latter is particularly relevant as the root of the word “sodomite.” The two cities are also known as The Cities of the Plain.
A world this very day burning, / One of the cities of the plain!
Marc-Andre Raffalovich, In Fancy Dress (1886), p99.
The scene then changed, and shifted into the gorgeous towns of Sodom and Gomorrah, weird, beautiful and grand; to me the pianist’s notes just then seemed murmuring in my ear with the panting of an eager lust, the sound of thrilling kisses.
Anonymous, Teleny (1893), p22, but also p29 and p139.
Occupations
Artists
Artists went hand-in-hand with long hair, flamboyance, and emotion. See Aesthete and Artistic Temperament.
Pianist
At this point, I don’t think it can be a coincidence that queer literature is filled with gay pianists. Bonus points for Chopin references (Twilight Men (p16, p107), The Critic as Artist).
Must every man and woman be in love with the pianist?
Anonymous, Teleny (1893), p73.
- Jacques Soran — Henri d’Argis, Sodome (1888).
- Gilbert — Oscar Wilde, “The Critic as Artist” (1891).
- Dorian Gray — Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891).
- Rene Teleny — Anonymous, Teleny (1893).
- Dennis Blackwood & Crispin Burgess — A. T. Fitzroy, Despised and Rejected (1918).
- Arthur Lemoyne — Henry B. Fuller, Bertram Cope’s Year (1919).
- Armand Bironge & Pedro Mercardi — André Tellier, Twilight Men (1931).
- Munday — Kay Boyle, Gentlemen, I Address You Privately (1933).
- Adrian — Reginald Underwood, Bachelor’s Hall (1934).
Queer
Almost exclusively used as an adjective, not a noun. Appears most often in its original meaning, ‘strange,’ but also can imply homosexuality.
I shall never let out that queer secret of theirs
Edward Prime-Stevenson, “Aquae Multae Non—” (1883).
I met her at a queer party in New York, where they had artists, and authors, and musicians, and that lot.
John T. Wheelwright, “A Cure for Dudes” in George Riddle’s Readings (1888), p32.
He had other acceptable qualities, you see; so I didn’t allow myself to be too much stirred up by… that remarkably queer one.
Edward Prime-Stevenson, Imre: A Memorandum (1906), p73.
He’s got a queer strain of the maternal in him. It’s obvious […] in the way he looks upon that boy…. It’s a woman’s passion as well as a man’s that he feels for Alan.
A. T. Fitzroy, Despised and Rejected (1918) p347.
I want you to know […] that I’m what the world considers queer. Do you understand that, or must I elucidate?
Andre Tellier, Twilight Men (1931) p119.
Sensitive
Although it generally refers to how emotional a person may be, it can also suggest the sensory occupation of dandies or aesthetes.
His face was smooth-shaven, his eyes large and melancholy, his whimsical, sensitive mouth was upcurved at the corners, his waving chestnut hair was longer than was the fashion.
John T. Wheelwright, “The Roman Bath” (1920), in The Best Short Stories of 1920 (1921). p316-317
Sex Work
Complaisant
An obliging people-pleaser and a term attributed to a man in the passive sexual role since the early 1800’s.
Mignon
“Cute” in English. An effeminate man in the passive sexual role.
I was destined always to play the woman’s role—the role of the mignon—that distinct and
The Countess, Secret Confessions of a Parisian (1874), in Queer Lives, p22.
separate type among all men with similar passions.
Fille
“Girl” in English. Frequently refers to female sex workers, but the Countess uses it for males.
Petit
“Little” in English. 1800’s street slang for young male prostitutes.
Tante
“Aunt” in English. Effeminate men, particularly gay men. Originally for passive male inmates.
Tapette
A flamboyant homosexual, although simply “chatterbox” when applied to a woman.
The tapette has an affected manner of expressing himself, as ornate and bizarre as his extraordinary life.
The Countess, Secret Confessions of a Parisian (1874), in Queer Lives, p52.
Shame
A stand-in word for love, and specifically gay love.
The first is Beauty clad in Love’s proud weeds,
Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Tuberose and Meadowsweet (1885), p119, but also see: p83, Cyril and Lionel (1884) p86 and p93, In Fancy Dress (1886) p2 and p54.
and Love the second with the badge of grief,
A thorny wreath rose red a breast that bleeds.
The third is Sorrow: but men call him Shame.
Uranistic love—the fittest names for which so often should be written Torment, Shame, and Despair!
Edward Prime-Stevenson, Imre: A Memorandum (1906), p77.
Of all sweet passions Shame is the loveliest.
Lord Alfred Douglas, “In Praise of Shame,” but also see “Two Loves.”
Silence
Since queer love could not be public, it was often silent or unspeakable.
Why are we here to-day? O hide your shame
Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Tuberose and Meadowsweet (1885), p77.
Mine shall be silent too.
It was my first great misery, Imre. It was literally unspeakable!
Edward Prime-Stevenson, Imre: A Memorandum (1906).
Omit: a reference to the unspeakable vice of the Greeks.
E. M. Forster, Maurice (1971), p42.
So
A euphemism for homosexuality most often phrased, “Is he so?”
OLIVE. He is subtle.
F. C. Burnand, The Colonel (1881)
COL. He is so.
Strange
Another word tying back to “queer” or in contrast to the normalcy of heterosexual love.
Strange as lovers ever
Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Cyril and Lionel (1884), p70.
And we are not less strange than you
Edward Perry Warren, Itamos (1903), p95.
Tribade
Although frequently used interchangeably with the word “lesbian,” a tribade was specifically a woman who had sex with women while a lesbian or homosexual woman may have forwent sexual relations.
These women usually came in pairs and were charming priestesses of that enormous cult that worshiped at Sappho’s altar. They belonged to that strange sect, that incomprehensible love, from which men are excluded. They were the most important tribades in Paris.
Arthur W., Secret Confessions of a Parisian (1874) in Queer Lives (2007), p44.
But what did I care if some tribades suspected us of sharing their own frailties.
Anonymous, Teleny (1883), p131.
[…] Effeminate men who only have sexual relations with women, who are indifferent to males, but are often inverted towards females. They love masculine women, tribades, and lesbians. We find among them fetishists, sapphists, and machochists.
Marc-André Raffalovich, Uranisme et Unisexualité (1896) tr. Nancy Erber & William Peniston.
Uranian
Homosexual. A term originating from Karl Heinrich Ulrich’s 1862 theory that Uranier, or Urning, was a man who loved men. Inversely, the Dionäer, or Dioning, was a man who loved women. He later added Urninde for women who loved women. Uranism, uranist, earnest, and related terms are derived from Ulrich’s term, but Uranian remains the most popular. The Uranian movement was typified by optimistic defenses of homosexuality by writers, and was not exclusively pedophillic as Timothy d’Arch Smith’s otherwise extraordinary study claims in Love in Earnest (1970).
Lemoyne impulsively threw an arm across his shoulder. ‘Everything is all right, now,’ he said, in a tone of high gratification; and Urania, through the whole width of her starry firmament, looked down kindly upon a happier household.
Henry Blake Fuller, Bertram Cope’s Year (1919)