epicene
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɛp.ɪˌsiːn/
ipa: /ˈɛp.əˌsin/
Forms: form: epicœne
form: epicoene
Etymology: From Late Middle English epicene, epicen, epicin, epcyn, episcen, epycen, epycene, epycyn, ypsen (“(grammar) having only one form for masculine and feminine gender, common”), from Late Latin epicoenos, epicoenus (“of a noun: applicable to either males or females”), Latin epicoenon (“noun applicable to either males or females; grammatical gender of such nouns”), from Ancient Greek ἐπίκοινος (epíkoinos, “common to many people, things, etc.; promiscuous, sluttish”) (compare γένος ἐπίκοινον (génos epíkoinon, “common gender”)), from ἐπι- (epi-, prefix meaning ‘on, upon; on top of; all over’) + κοινός (koinós, “common; general, public”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“beside, by, near, with”) + *-yós (suffix forming adjectives from noun stems)).
Senses: examples: text: Q. How will you diſtinguiſh the Maſculine hic from the Epicene hic, and the Feminine hæc from the Epicene hæc? / A. That word that hath hic before it, and is onely male, is the Maſculine gender: but if it be both male and female, then it is the Epicene Gender: and ſo hæc before a female, is feminine, but hæc before a word that contains under it both ſexes, is Epicene.
ref: 1665, Ch[arles] Hoole, “Of a Noun”, in The Terminations and Examples of the Declensions and Conjugations: […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Printed by John Field, printer to the University, →OCLC, page 55:
text: Epicene nouns are equally misunderstood: they are of one gender only. These, like the common, represent under one word each member of a pair of animals—the male and the female: thus passer—a sparrow—denotes the cock sparrow, as well as the hen: but in the use of these words there is no variation of the gender: they are invariably used in one gender only: thus passer is of the masculine gender: and though used for the purpose of representing the hen-sparrow; still every adjective or participle connected with it must be used in the masculine gender: [...] In short, epicene nouns differ from the common in this only; that they do not vary their genders in accordance with nature: they invariably keep to one gender.
ref: 1843, Richard Haynes, “Of Nouns Substantive”, in A Commentary on the Eton Latin-grammar. … Orthography and Etymology, Bristol: Printed and published for the author, by John Wright & Co., […], →OCLC, part II (Etymology), section 3 (Genders of Nouns Substantive), page 9:
text: In many names of animals, the same word with the same gender is used for both sexes: ἡ ἁλὠπηξ the fox, male or female. These are said to be epicoene.
ref: 1862, James Hadley, “Nouns”, in A Greek Grammar, for Schools and Colleges, New York, N.Y.; London: D. Appleton and Company, […], →OCLC, part second (Inflection), paragraph 118, page 32:
text: Ovis, therefore, is epicene, and, moreover, a true epicene, like volpes, aquila, merula, avis, panthera, corvus, and others. It is epicene, because it has just been proved to be the generic term for sheep without thought for sex, to have only one grammatical gender, feminine, and yet, as a true epicene, to be carried to its logical development, so that on a few occasions, such as we have encountered in Ovid, and in [Marcus Terentius] Varro, it is employed strictly of the male.
ref: 1917, Horace Wetherill Wright, The Sacra Idulia in Ovid’s Fasti: A Study of Ovid’s Credibility in Regard to the Place and the Victim of this Sacrifice, Newark, N.J.: The Essex Press, →OCLC, page 45:
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: Of or relating to a class of Greek and Latin nouns that may refer to males or females but have a fixed grammatical gender (feminine, masculine, neuter, etc.).
examples: text: In Telugu some confusion has been introduced between the epicene sign of plurality 'ar-u', and the neuter 'lu.' [...] Thus the Telugu demonstrative pronoun 'vâr-u,' they (the plural of 'vâḍu,' he), corresponding to the Canarese 'avar-u,' exhibits the regular epicene plural; while 'magaḍu,' a husband (in Tamil 'magan'), takes for its plural not 'magaru,' but 'magalu;' [...]
ref: 1856, R[obert] Caldwell, “Section III. The Noun.”, in A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages, London; Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate […], →OCLC, part I (Gender and Number), section 1 (Gender), page 189:
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
synonyms: common
glosses: Of or relating to nouns or pronouns in any language that have a single form for male and female referents.
examples: text: Boating when epicene is nice, in truth, / E'en though one must allow, / The danger of giving the helm to youth / While pleasure rules the prow. / [...] / 'Tis best when Frank takes his cousin ashore, / She loves botanising, / While Sissy who's left, can handle an oar / In a manner surprising.
ref: 1878 June, “Ludovic” [pseudonym], “Epicene Boating”, in The Kentish Magazine: A Literary Monthly Miscellany for the County, number II, Maidstone, Kent: Burgiss-Brown, […]; London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., […], →OCLC, page 63:
glosses: Suitable for use regardless of sex; unisex.
examples: text: Five High School boys came down the road abreast. Ellis saw them coming, a row of yellow, malicious faces—epicene faces, horribly smooth and young, grinning at him with deliberate insolence.
ref: 1934 October, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Burmese Days, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, →OCLC; republished as chapter 22, in Burmese Days (ebook no. 0200051h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, November 2015:
text: The 1960's may well be remembered as the epicene era. Boys grew long hair and bangs; girls adopted trousers, vests and peaked caps – and with everyone wearing tight pants and boots, your guess is as good as ours whether that was a guy or a gal who just went by!
ref: [1969], “Verbia” [pseudonym], with Miriam Berg, A Play on Words, [New York, N.Y.]: Macmillan, →OCLC, page 160:
text: There is a kind of aesthetic masturbation here akin to Elmer's love of impregnable, virginal epicene women.
ref: 1974, Thomas McHaney, “The Elmer Papers: [William] Faulkner’s Comic Portraits of the Artist”, in James B. Meriwether, editor, A Faulkner Miscellany, Jackson, Miss.: Published for the Mississippi Quarterly by the University of Mississippi Press, →ISBN, page 49; quoted in Panthea Reid Broughton, “The Economy of Desire: Faulkner’s Poetics, From Eroticism to Post-Impressionism”, in John T. Matthews and Judith Bryant Wittenberg, editor, The Faulkner Journal [Special Issue: Faulkner and Feminisms], volume 4, numbers 1 and 2, Akron, Oh.: University of Akron, fall 1988 – spring 1989, published fall 1991, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 167:
text: ‘The actor was male. He wasn’t one of Jim’s regulars. But the character I recognize in the door is epicene.’
ref: 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 939:
text: A few boys still playing ringolievio, haphazard and half speed, the clumsy fatboy trapped in the den, always caught, always it, the slightly epicene butterfat bulk, the boy who's always reaching down to lift a droopy sock and getting swift-kicked by the witlings and sadists. Is that what being it means? Neutered, sexless, impersonalized.
ref: 1997, Don DeLillo, Underworld, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, →ISBN; 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, 2003, →ISBN, part 6, page 675:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
synonyms: gynandromorphic
gynandrous
glosses: Of indeterminate sex, whether asexual, androgynous, hermaphrodite, or intersex; of a human face, intermediate in form between a man's face and a woman's face.
glosses: Indeterminate; mixed.
examples: text: A lot of rather etiolated, epicene, middle-class, male intellectuals have discovered a new authenticity when they come to identify themselves as football fans.
ref: 1994 August, Will Self, “The valley of the corn dollies”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, published 17 January 2014, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 Apr 2016:
text: Here it is vital to turn up at least half an hour early, when you find a kitsch variety show, ostensibly staged by a Gibraltarian touring company, in full, ghastly progress. It is certainly nothing if not international: Austria is symbolised by lederhosen and dirndls; gay Paree by boaters and baguettes; and Scotland, somewhat libellously, by kilted, epicene figures singing "Donald, where's your troosers?"
ref: 2005 August 18, Michael Billington, “Nuts CocoNuts [theatre review]”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Sep 2014:
glosses: Of a man: effeminate.
Derived terms: epicene pronoun
epicenism
epicenity