Antedating of "Homophobia"

Shapiro, Fred fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Thu Dec 29 00:59:57 UTC 2011


The OED's first use for "homophobia" in the anti-gay sense is dated Oct. 1969.  According to Wikipedia, "The word homophobia first appeared in print in an article written for the May 23, 1969, edition of the American tabloid<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabloid_%28newspaper_format%29> Screw<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw_magazine>, in which the word was used to refer to heterosexual men's fear that others might think they are gay."<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophobia#cite_note-herek-8>

Fred Shapiro

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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