Dear Renee Allen

[highlyeccentric]

Women do not have homosocial relations. Sorry. They can have homoSEXUAL relations, if they want. And they can have gynosocial relations. But homosocial relations are relations between men. Homo-social. Social between men. As opposed to hom(e)o-sexual, sexual relationships between persons who are 'the same' (for a given definition of same, which in this case is gender).

Comments

[avedaggio.livejournal.com]

*lawl*

I'm about to shoot myself for unpardonable pedantry here...

[sea-of-tethys.livejournal.com]

I heard somewhere that there are two meanings for "homo" -- one means "man", but the other means "the same" (as in "homophone", "homologue", etc.). The first one should have the first vowel pronounced as it is in "home", and the other is pronounced with the first vowel like it is in "sorrow" or "mock". Whoever told me this was arguing that "homosexual" should be pronounced with the second pronunciation, unless it's specifically referring to men.

Uh, does that make sense?

Re: I'm about to shoot myself for unpardonable pedantry here...

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's makes sense and is entirely correct. Although in the case of homosexual, it used to have an e in it. I don't know if homophone etc once did... Friend of mine has a 1940s dictionary which actually has the entry as 'homeosexual' rather than 'homosexual'.