sapphic

adjective

1. pertaining to Sappho or to certain meters or a form of strophe or stanza used by or named after her.
2. Lesbian(def 2).

noun

3. a Sapphic verse.

adjective

1. prosody denoting a metre associated with Sappho, consisting generally of a trochaic pentameter line with a dactyl in the third foot
2. of or relating to Sappho or her poetry
3. lesbian

noun

4. prosody a verse, line, or stanza written in the Sapphic form

adj.c.1500, “of or pertaining to Sappho,” from French saphique, from Latin Sapphicus, from Greek Sapphikos “of Sappho,” in reference to Sappho, poetess of the isle of Lesbos c.600 B.C.E. Especially in reference to her characteristic meter; sense of “pertaining to sexual relations between women” is from 1890s (cf. lesbian).