tribade

From Middle French tribade, and its source, Latin tribad-, from Koine Greek τριβάς (tribás), from Ancient Greek τρίβω (tríbō, “to rub”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹɪbəd/, /tɹɪˈbɑːd/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːd, -ɪbəd

tribade (plural tribades)

1. A woman who engages in sexual activity with another woman; a lesbian. [from 16th c.]
   • a. 1637, Ben Jonson, Præludium:

     Go, cramp dull Mars, light Venus, when he snorts, / Or with thy tribade trine invent new sports; / Thou, nor thy looseness with my making sorts.

   • 1927, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex‎, 3rd edition, volume 2:

     A century later, however, homosexuality among English women seems to have been regarded by the French as common, and Bacchaumont […] added: "Her taste for women will there find attractive satisfaction, for though Paris furnishes many tribades it is said that London is herein superior."

   • 1977, Angela Carter, The Passion of New Eve:

     I roused Zero’s suspicions because I began to behave too much like a woman and he started to watch me warily for signs of the tribade. If he had spied any, or surprised me fingering any of his girls, he would have shot me.

• tribadic
• tribadism

• fricatrice
• rubster

• bitrade, red-bait, redbait

Borrowed from French tribade, from Latin tribas, from Ancient Greek τριβάς (tribás).

• IPA^(key): /ˌtriˈbaː.də/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: tri‧ba‧de
• Rhymes: -aːdə

tribade f (plural tribades)

1. (historical, originally derogatory) lesbian, tribade

• tribadisme

• Audio

  (file)

tribade f (plural tribades)

1. (obsolete) tribade

• “tribade”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

tribade

1. ablative singular of tribas