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A recent civil claim filed in Greece identifies the harm complained about as “psychological and moral rape”. That’s an unusual type of injury that may leave many lawyers wondering whom best to ask about what it means: a general practice doctor, a psychiatrist or a philosopher.

But the claim gets even trickier, as the alleged victim is not one person but the residents of the island of Lesbos.

Dimitris Lambrou, along with another Lesbos resident and a member of a nationalist pagan association, have started a legal action to gain the exclusive right to call themselves Lesbians. Their legal action seeks to prohibit the Greek Gay and Lesbian Union (OLKE) from using the name "lesbian". The claimants argue that the “seizure” of the term lesbian to mean more than simply “of the island of Lesbos” (in the northern part of the Grecian archipelago) has caused them mental distress.

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This action asks the law to run against a long established usage. Historically, the island of Lesbos became associated with the love poems of the poetess Sappho (born in the 7th century BC) who expressed her love of other women in verses. She was first described as a sexual lover of women in post-classical times.

The word lesbianism appears in formal English as a term describing sexual orientation in 1870. Lesbianism between consenting people aged over 16 is not illegal in English law and never has been. It is sometimes said that Queen Victoria refused to assent to section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, which criminalised homosexual conduct, unless all references to women were removed because she did not believe females did such things. But that story is apocryphal. In 1921, though, fretful MPs decided not to legislate against lesbianism in case publication of such a law introduced “perfectly innocent people” to such relationships.

It remains to be seen how far the litigants from Lesbos get in claiming the term lesbian. There are those who think that a relaxed attitude to names is best. My wife and three daughters, for example, are all Slappers. When, some years ago, television, radio, the papers, and their school friends started to use the word slapper to denote a female of wild and promiscuous morals, they briefly discussed whether to file an action against the English speaking world but decided against it.

Professor Slapper is Director of the Centre for Law at The Open University. His recent book How the Law Works is published by HarperCollins

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