late 14c., from Old French Sodomite "inhabitant of Sodom; sodomite," also a general term of abuse, or directly from Late Latin Sodomita, from Greek Sodomites "inhabitant of Sodom" (see Sodom, also sodomy). Related: Sodomitical. Old English had adjective sodomitisc. The King James Bible (1611) has fem. form sodomitesse in a marginal note to "whore" in Deut. xxiii:17.
