In 1875, George Saintsbury, in writing about Baudelaire's poetry, refers to his "Lesbian studies" in which he includes his poem about "the passion of Delphine" which is a poem simply about love between two women which does not mention the island of Lesbos, though the other poem alluded to, entitled "Lesbos", does. In Algernon Charles Swinburne's 1866 poem Sapphics, the term lesbian appears twice but capitalized both times after twice mentioning the island of Lesbos, and so could be construed to mean 'from the island of Lesbos'. Before the mid-19th century, the word lesbian referred to any derivative or aspect of Lesbos, including a type of wine. She focused on the beauty of women and proclaimed her love for girls. Little of Sappho's poetry survives, but her remaining poetry reflects the topics she wrote about: women's daily lives, their relationships, and rituals. From various ancient writings, historians gathered that a group of young women were left in Sappho's charge for their instruction or cultural edification. The word lesbian is the demonym of the Greek island of Lesbos, home to the 6th-century BCE poet Sappho. Sappho of Lesbos, depicted here in a 1904 painting by John William Godward, gave the term lesbian the connotation of erotic desire between women.
Instead, lesbian relationships have often been regarded as harmless, unless a participant attempts to assert privileges traditionally enjoyed by men. Throughout history, women have not had the same freedom or independence as men to pursue homosexual relationships, but neither have they met the same harsh punishment as homosexual men in some societies. The concept of "lesbian" to differentiate women with a shared sexual orientation evolved in the 20th century. The word lesbian is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexuality or same-sex attraction.
In biology, the singular symbol represents the female sex. Symbol representing lesbian made from two interlocked astronomical symbols for the planet Venus.