Lesbian /?lezbi?n/（同性戀女子）
Lesbian now means a female homosexual（同性戀者） or a woman who is primarily（天生） attracted to other women.The word used to mean the residents of the Isle（島） of Lesbos, a Greek island, where lived a woman poet Sappho in 600 B. C.
lesbian一詞現(xiàn)在指女同性戀者，或者天生被女人吸引的女性。這個(gè)詞原本是指住在希臘萊斯博斯島（Lesbos）上的居民。公元前六百年，島上曾住著一名女詩人薩福。
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Although much of her poetry had been destroyed by religious fundamentalists（原教旨主義者）, the few poems of Sappho that remain speak clearly her love and infatuation（迷戀） with women.
雖然她的大部分詩作都被宗教原教旨主義者們所焚毀，但是從殘存下來的一小部分中仍然可以清楚地看出她對女性的愛和迷戀。
Being referred to as the tenth Muse by Plato, Sappho is the first lesbian ever documented. Prior to the word lesbian gaining popularity, women who loved other women were often called “sapphic”, and their love, defined as “sapphistry”.
被柏拉圖稱為第十位繆斯女神的薩福，是第一位被記錄下來的女同性戀者。在lesbian一詞流行之前，女同性戀者常被稱為“薩福女”，而此種感情則被稱為“薩福愛”。
Gay /ɡe?/（同性戀男子）
The word gay, derived from the Old French word “gai”，originally means joyful or carefree, like the famous line in the poem Daffodils by William Wordsworth：“A poet could not but be gay in such a jocund company.”
單詞gay源自法語的gai，本義是指快樂和無憂，如同英國詩人華茲華斯《致水仙》中的著名詩句：“詩人對此殊激昂，獨(dú)在花中事幽默”（郭沫若譯）。
It is around 1920s or 1930s that the word began to have a new meaning. A gay man is not just a man addicted to sexual pleasure, but a homosexual man.
到了20世紀(jì)二三十年代，這個(gè)詞開始有了新的含義，gay man不僅指沉迷性愛歡愉的男人，還可以指男同性戀者。
It seems that the word homosexual is much too clinical（臨床的）, suggesting a physical disorder, so the word gay is preferred for its association with mirth（歡樂） and freedom.
因?yàn)閔omosexual一詞似乎太像醫(yī)學(xué)術(shù)語，給人以機(jī)體紊亂的印象，所以更多的人偏愛用gay這個(gè)讓人聯(lián)想到快樂和自由的詞匯。
The abstract noun gaiety has largely cleared of the sexual connotation as with the word gay, and keeps its definition related to festive and celebration.
而抽象名詞gaiety已經(jīng)基本上將性的含義完全清除了，保留下來的是和節(jié)日及慶祝相關(guān)聯(lián)的喜悅心情。
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