English
sexual
Sexual comes from Latin sexuālis, from sexus ‘sex; division’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsexus‘division; sex’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsexuālis
- Englishearliest quotation 1791sexual
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsexus‘division; sex’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsexuālis
- Englishearliest quotation 1791sexual
Earliest quotation: 1791, Mary Wollstonecraft, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson: “[T]he inquiry is whether she have reason or not.…”
Equivalent to sex + -ual
Latin sexus ‘gender; males or females’
Old French sexe ‘genitals; gender’
Middle English sexe ‘sex, gender’
English sex
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *sek- ‘to cut, cut off, sever’
saw, design, sign, ship, sack, seal, scarlet, sawyer, sax, shingle, scythe, sich, sigil, desiccation, sain, sedge, desiccant, 61 more
through Proto-Italic *sekaō ‘to cut’
through Latin secō ‘to cut, cut off’
risk, section, segment, insect, sickle, dissect, brassica, seg, 21 more
through Latin sexus ‘division’
through Latin sexuālis
Today it means
adj Arising from the fact of being male or female; pertaining to sex or gender, or to the social relations between the sexes.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin sexus / sexual