Japanese

Onabe

The literal translation of the Japanese expression ” onabe ” is pot and is slang for a masculine lesbian. As in other offending words used to refer to lesbians in Japan, its origin is in translating one gay slang word, in this case, Okama, the most famous insult or Japanese expression for gay people, since “kama” means cauldron, which is near a pot. At first, it had the sense of lesbian with an “active” role in sex, so that it served as a modifier of the word Rezubian; there were “Onabe Rezubians” and Rezubians who were not. In the early 1990s, Onabe differentiation begins as another type of lesbian, different from Rezubian.

See: Okama. Gay Dictionary (Japan)