A term preferred by some writers in preference to using homosexual as a noun.
In a newsmagazine cover article on Gore [Vidal] in the late 1970s, the celebrated author and essayist explained that, since homosexual is used as an adjective (homosexual fantasy), the noun form needed something more, well, distinctive and substantive: he used homosexualist to describe someone who is gay in practice, or as a state of being.
One doesnt argue lightly with Gore Vidal but there are precedents either way in forming nouns. Alcoholic drink / Joes an alcoholic, uses alcoholic first as an adjective, then as a noun. Similarly, [Green politics] / [Cary] has become a Green.
[OTOH] a medical practitioner of [psychiatry] is not a psychiatric (better used as an adjective = psychiatric evaluation), but a psychiatrist, a description of a person, not a field. One who enjoys sensual things is a [sensualist] but has an appreciation of the sensual.
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]]>https://definedictionarymeaning.com/topic/132078/homosexualistRSS for NodeSat, 13 Jun 2026 01:20:42 GMTWed, 05 Feb 2020 23:03:18 GMT60A homosexual person (especially a man). Now somewhat dated or humorous.

]]>https://definedictionarymeaning.com/post/251610https://definedictionarymeaning.com/post/251610Wed, 05 Feb 2020 23:44:03 GMT