ceterosexual
Aug. 4th, 2023 07:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordOkay, this is a recent coinage, and consensus on the meaning and usage is still being worked out. I'll define it with the most general sense, followed by the caveats:
ceterosexual (SET-er-oh-SEK-shoo-uhl) - n., someone who is attracted to non-binary people.
Points under debate include whether the sexual/romantic attraction is exclusively to non-binary people (and based on how heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual is used, the trend seems to be towards that usage, though note pansexual), whether the attraction can also be to transgender people (I've no sense of the trending here), and whether anyone can be ceterosexual or only non-binary people (one concern of the former is that it might suggest/encourage fetishization). Formerly called skoliosexual, which was coined in 2010, but that's since been deprecated because the Ancient Greek root skolio- means crooked/bent and so, yeah, no -- ceterosexual was coined as a replacement in 2013 from Latin ceterus, the remainder/the rest (which shows up in English in its plural neutral form as "et cetera"). Other alternate terms have been proposed (including the fun-to-say enbysexual, after NB for nonbinary), but personally, I really like the root meaning of ceterosexual.
And that's the week of long 'uns -- back to the regular mix next week.
---L.
ceterosexual (SET-er-oh-SEK-shoo-uhl) - n., someone who is attracted to non-binary people.
Points under debate include whether the sexual/romantic attraction is exclusively to non-binary people (and based on how heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual is used, the trend seems to be towards that usage, though note pansexual), whether the attraction can also be to transgender people (I've no sense of the trending here), and whether anyone can be ceterosexual or only non-binary people (one concern of the former is that it might suggest/encourage fetishization). Formerly called skoliosexual, which was coined in 2010, but that's since been deprecated because the Ancient Greek root skolio- means crooked/bent and so, yeah, no -- ceterosexual was coined as a replacement in 2013 from Latin ceterus, the remainder/the rest (which shows up in English in its plural neutral form as "et cetera"). Other alternate terms have been proposed (including the fun-to-say enbysexual, after NB for nonbinary), but personally, I really like the root meaning of ceterosexual.
And that's the week of long 'uns -- back to the regular mix next week.
---L.
