The LGBTQ slang sense wascoined by sex therapist and authorJoe Kort in 2010 and popularized in 2013.[1][2] The sense was coined by analogy withtop andbottom and based on the metaphor of a box which has a top, bottom, and sides.[1][2]
We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine.[…]As we reached the lodge we heard the whistle, and we backed up against oneside of the platform as the train pulled up at the other.
The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to hisside, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.
Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught theside of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.
1988, Ken Jones with Pat Welton Crown,Soccer skills & tactics, page 9:
Newly promoted, they were top of the First Division and unbeaten when they took on a Manchester Unitedside that had been revitalized by a new manager,[…].
It was no less than Valencia deserved after dominating possession in the final 20 minutes although Chelsea defended resolutely and restricted the Spanishside to shooting from long range.
2011, Nick Cain, Greg Growden,Rugby Union For Dummies, 3rd edition, UK,page220:
Initially, the English, Welsh, Scots and Irish unions refused to send nationalsides, preferring instead to send touringsides like the Barbarians, the Penguins, the Co-Optimists, the Wolfhounds, Crawshays Welsh, and the Public School Wanderers.
1995, James Lincoln Collier,Jazz: The American Theme Song, page41:
ButBechet chafed under even the loose discipline of theEllington group, and left. Through these years he wandered, making only a fewsides, at the moment when jazz records were beginning to flood onto the market.
To sit upon thy father David's throne, / By Mothersside thy father.
2016 February 27, Sean M. Teaford,Out on the Limbs: Searching for Answers in the Family Tree, AuthorHouse,→ISBN:
Thankfully our son agreed and chose a name which, according to what I have been told is the name of the last in a long line of Rabbis on my wife'sside.
Indeed, Yeere was rapidly beginning to forget what he had been. One of his own rank and file put the matter brutally when he asked Yeere, in reference to nothing, “And who has been makingyou a Member of Council, lately? You carry theside of half a dozen of ’em.”
1930, Frank Richards, “Tale-Bearer in Chief”, inThe Magnet:
His manner never had been modest or retiring. Now it was unmistakablyswanky; he was putting onside to an extent that made fellows who observed him smile and shrug their shoulders.
2010, Viola Spolin, Carol Sills,Theater Games for Rehearsal: A Director's Handbook, page12:
Some directors use full scripts (book); others use “sides,” which consist of one or two words of the cue and the subsequent full speech of the individual actor.
2017, Dave Kost,Book of Sides II:
The short scenes in this book are particularly useful for audition workshops since auditionsides are rarely longer than two pages.
(LGBTQ,slang) Aman who prefers not to engage inanal sex during same-sex sexual activity.
My boyfriend and I are bothsides; we prefer to do oral and other stuff.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
All rising to great place is by a winding star; and if there be factions, it is good toside a man's self, whilst he is in the rising, and to balance himself when he is placed.
He had ſure read more , and carried more about him , in his excellent Memory , than any Man I ever knew , my Lord Falkland only excepted , who I thinkſided him
(transitive, shipbuilding) To work (a timber or rib) to a certain thickness by trimming the sides.
c.1556,Thomas Cranmer, “That the general counsels withoute the worde of god are not sufficiente to make articles of fayth”, inA Confutation of Unwritten Verities[4]:
But when he perceaved that the sayd Pryest could not pourge himself of the foresayd crime he prively payed him his quarters wages before hande and suffered hym to departe without farther tryall of the sayd cryme: and now hejetteth in london wythside gown andsarcenet typet as good a virgin priest as the best.
What doe we make dost thou aske? why we make faces for feare: such as if thy mortall eyes could behold, would make thee water the long seames of thysideslops[…]
By my troth, ’s but a night-gown in respect of yours: cloth o’ gold, and cuts, and laced with silver, set with pearls, down sleeves,side sleeves, and skirts, round underborne with a bluish tinsel[…]
1883, Jane Welsh Carlyle, Thomas Carlyle, James Anthony Froude,Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle - Volume 1, page292:
Meanwhile I have plenty to employ me, insiding drawers and locked places, which I left in the disgracefullest confusion ;
1897, Sir Hall Caine,The Manxman - Volume 2, page304:
Nowside everything away. The medicines too —put them in the cupboard.
2001, Audrey Howard,The Seasons Will Pass:
As it had done then, Clare's heart, in a constant state of stress these days, missed a beat now, and she turned hastily to the table where she wassiding the dinner things, doing her best to hide her expression which surely would give her away.
↑1.01.1Joe Kort (2022 May 16) “Gay "Sides": How Language Frees Us to be Ourselves”, inPsychology Today[1], Sussex Publishers, archived fromthe original on2025-01-17:
[…] in 2013 when, in an article I wrote for the Huffington Post, “Guys on the Side,” I created the term “side” for gay men who aren’t into being a “top” or a “bottom” or practicing anal penetration.[…] The term “Side” was created when in 2010, I was talking with some colleagues about “tops”[…] and “bottoms”[…] and outed myself for being a gay man who doesn’t engage in anal intercourse at all. I joked, “Boxes have a bottom and a top—why can’t men like me be sides?
↑2.02.1Joe Kort (2013 April 16) “Guys on the ‘Side’: Looking Beyond Gay Tops and Bottoms”, inHuffPost[2], archived fromthe original on2019-06-07:
What about gay men who have never engaged in anal sex and never will, ever? ¶ I think they deserve a name of their own. I call them “sides.” ¶ Defining a Side ¶ Sides prefer to kiss, hug and engage in oral sex, rimming, mutual masturbation and rubbing up and down on each other, to name just a few of the sexual activities they enjoy. These men enjoy practically every sexual practice aside from anal penetration of any kind. They may have tried it, and even performed it for some time, before they became aware that for them, it was simply not erotic and wasn’t getting any more so. Some may even enjoy receiving or giving anal stimulation with a finger, but nothing beyond that.
“side”, inKielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish][6] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki:Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland),2004–, retrieved2023-07-03
