transgender
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /tɹænzˈd͡ʒɛndə/
ipa: /tɹɑːnz-/
ipa: /tɹæns-/
ipa: /ˌtɹænzˈd͡ʒɛndəɹ/
ipa: /ˌtɹæn(t)s-/
rhymes: -ɛndə(ɹ)
Forms: form: transgenders
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *terh₂-der.
Proto-Italic *trānts
Latin trāns
Latin trans-bor.
English trans-
Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁-
Proto-Indo-European *-os
Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁os
Latin genus
Old French gendrebor.
Middle English gendre
English gender
English transgender
The adjective sense is derived from trans- (“extending across, through, or over”) + gender, modelled after transsexual (adjective) and probably modified from transgenderism which was coined by the American psychiatrist John F. Oliven (1915–1975) in 1965; the terms transgender, transgenderal, transgendered, transgenderist, and similar terms arose in the decades after this. By the 1990s, the word transgender had acquired its current senses, and had also largely displaced the earlier term transsexual: see the usage notes.
The noun and verb senses are derived from the adjective. Regarding noun sense 2 ("synonym of transgenderism"), compare transsex (noun).
Senses: examples: text: "If you understand trans-genders," she [Christine Jorgensen] says, choosing the word she prefers to transsexuals, "then you understand that gender is different than sexual preference. It doesn't have to do with bed partners, it has to do with identity." Jorgensen says she knows of some male-to-female trans-genders who have settled into lesbian relationships. She herself is heterosexual.
ref: 1979 September 23, Jerry Parker, “A woman with no regrets”, in Stanley Green, editor, LI: Newsday’s Magazine for Long Island, Suffolk edition, Melville, N.Y.: Newsday Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 18, columns 3–4:
text: transgender—an individual who lives as a person of a gender different from the one society defines for that person's sex (e.g., male "transvestites" who wear women's clothing, hair styles and other body accoutrements, use "feminine" speech and body language, and identify with the gender category woman). Also sometimes referred to as "cross-gendered people" (Blackwood 1984).
ref: [1989, Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Christine Roberts, “Sex, Sexuality, Gender, and Gender Variance”, in Sandra Morgen, editor, Gender and Anthropology: Critical Reviews for Research and Teaching, Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association, →ISBN, page 455:
text: In a patriarchal society in which machismo rules, MTF [male-to-female] transgenders represent a challenge to traditional masculinity due to their renouncing of the male position of social power.
ref: 2005, Walter Bockting, Eric Avery, Transgender Health and HIV Prevention: : Needs Assessment Studies from Transgender Communities across the United States (International Journal of Transgenderism; volume 8, issues 2–3), New York, N.Y.: Haworth Medical Press, →ISBN, page 116:
text: There were divisions for [netball] teams of men, women, mixed and transgenders. Individual transgenders could compete in any division; however, transgender teams could not play against biological women's teams.
ref: 2006, Caroline Symons, Dennis Hemphill, “Transgendering Sex and Sport in the Gay Games”, in Jayne Caudwell, editor, Sport, Sexualities and Queer/Theory (Routledge Critical Studies in Sport), Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 122:
text: This public presentation of the mutilation of the penis is not obviously very different from the forms of disassembly of the penis engaged in by male body modifiers—particularly nullos and transgenders—on the Body Modification Ezine website.
ref: 2014, Sheila Jeffreys, Gender Hurts: A Feminist Analysis of the Politics of Transgenderism, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 70:
text: Nat spent years being victimised as a male to female transgender but was too scared to report it.
ref: 2015, Helen Davies, “Transgender woman forced to move house after death threats and knife in her front door”, in Liverpool Echo, Liverpool, Merseyside: Trinity Mirror Merseyside, →ISSN, →OCLC:
synonyms: transgenderal
glosses: A transgender person
synonyms: transgenderal
glosses: A transgender person
Transgender people collectively.
qualifier: preceded by the
examples: text: In spite of not "rootin' and tootin'" as a trans-gender case, in recent years [Christine] Jorgensen has been a staple on the college lecture circuit, speaking – of course – about trans-gender and herself.
ref: 1979 May 3, Pierre Bowman, “Back in showbiz Christine Jorgensen”, in George Chaplin, editor, The Honolulu Advertiser (People Report Section), Honolulu, Hi.: Thurston Twigg-Smith, →ISSN, →OCLC, page B-1, column 6:
text: The Scientific Humanitarian Committee published a yearbook that reported on movement activities. It also documented literary, cross-cultural, cross-historical and scientific studies on same-sex love and transgender.
ref: 2004 June 10, Leslie Feinberg, “The love that dared to speak its name”, in Workers World, New York, N.Y.: WW Publishers, →ISSN, →OCLC:
text: Before we can answer this question, we need to consider two other phenomena – transsex and transgender – which also expose the muddle within conventional categories of sex.
ref: 2007, Alison Stone, “Sex”, in An Introduction to Feminist Philosophy, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; Malden, Mass.: Polity Press, →ISBN, page 41:
glosses: Synonym of transgenderism (“the state of being transgender”).
synonyms: word: transgenderism
extra: the state of being transgender
Hypernyms: LGBT
Coordinate terms: berdache
hijra
two-spirit