This is the Allusionist, in which I, Helen Zoltzman, click my linguistic heels together

three times. I had different plans for the show this week. A lot of people had far more

significantly different plans for this week. This is a rerun of the story of how Pride

came to be the word chosen for LGBTQ Pride. The episode came pretty early in the Allusionist

run and it's one I've thought about often since. This week seems like a good time to hear

it again so that's what's coming up. Some of the audio isn't the clearest but there

is a transcript at the allusionist.org slash transcripts slash Pride. Let's warm up with

a little word history. One of the reasons I like words so much is that they are full of

surprises. For instance I thought it was pretty well known that the term lesbian alludes

to the Greek island of Lesbos, home to the poet Sappho who was famous for her poems about

love between women. Lesbos was first used to describe same sex relationships in the late

19th century but what I didn't know is that prior to then it had quite a different life.

From around the year 1590 a lesbian rule was the name of a tool used by Stone Masons, a

stick made of a kind of lead found on the Isle of Lesbos that was flexible so that it could

be used to measure or be molded to irregular shapes. And you can follow the lesbian rule

back to the 4th century BC when the Greek philosopher Aristotle used it as a simile for how

the legal system had to be flexible and respond to the particulars of each case. He wrote,

when the thing is indefinite the rule also is indefinite, like the lead and rule used

in making the lesbian molding. The rule adapts itself to the shape of the stone and is not

rigid and so too the decree is adapted to the facts. So from a flexible metal stick to

women who love women the word lesbian has had quite a journey. As has pride the old English

word meant bravery or pomp with the touch of conceit.

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