For centuries before that, comparing a woman to Sappho of Lesbos implied passions that were more than poetic. During that century, references to “Sapphic lovers” and “Sapphist” meant a woman who liked “her own sex in a criminal way”. William King in his satire The Toast (published 1732, revised 1736), referred to “Lesbians” as women who “loved Women in the same Manner as Men love them”. Contrary to the incomplete information given in the OED, the word lesbian has meant “female homosexual” since at least the early eighteenth century.

Lesbians may have a longer linguistic history than gay men. The History of the Word 'Gay' and other Queerwords