Introduction - What is sexual behavior?

History of the Term 1

John Wycliffe (ca. 1328-1384), also called “the morning star of the Reformation”, was a theologian at Oxford University and the leader of a team that produced the first English translation of the Bible.

Before the adjective "sexual" could even come into existence, the noun "sex" had to be introduced. For the English language, this was accomplished by a translation from the Latin Bible in 1382 by John Wycliffe and his team. In this translation, Noah selects two specimens of every animal for his ark “the maal sex and femaal” (Genesis 6:19). Here the word "sex" simply meant something like sort, set, kind, class, type, race, or breed. In fact, until well into the 18th century the word was often used in the same sense as the word "sect," i.e., as referring to a group of followers, a denomination, faction, caste, or school.