English
sexual
Sexual comes from Latin sexuālis, from sexus ‘sex; division’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsexus1‘division; sex’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsexuālis1
- Englishearliest quotation 1791sexual1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English sexual
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1791, Mary Wollstonecraft, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson: “[T]he inquiry is whether she have reason or not.…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsexusWiktionary, English sexual‘division; sex’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsexuālisWiktionary, English sexual
- Englishearliest quotation 1791sexualWiktionary, English sexual. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1791, Mary Wollstonecraft, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson: “[T]he inquiry is whether she have reason or not.…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with sexual, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *sek- ‘to cut, cut off, sever’
- saw ← sawe ← saga ← *sagu ← *sagō
- design ← designen ← designer ← designō ← signō
- sign ← signe ← seġn ← signum ← *segnom
- ship ← chip ← sċip ← *skip ← *skipą
- sack ← siccus ← *siskʷos ← *siskus
- seal ← sel ← seel ← sigillum ← signum
- scarlet ← escarlate ← scarlātum
- sawyer
- sax ← seax ← *sahs ← *sahsą
- shingle ← shyngel ← sċindel ← *skindulā ← scindula
- scythe ← sythe ← sīþe ← *sigiþi ← *sigiþiz
- sich ← Січ ← сікти ← сѣчи́ ← сѣчи
122 more relatives in the full family tree
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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.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “sexual”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin sexus / sexual