For Genderbending
or Genderbreaking People
- Ambigendered
- Androgyne
- Arenotelicon (Used in the Physiologus, an anonymous book of the early Renaissance, to describe hyenas, which at that time were believed to change their sex every year. This word was dredged up and resurrected by Raphael Carter in the Androgyny RAQ: Angel's Dictionary.)
- Bade (Crow Native American term)
- Basement transvestite (Invented by Alison Laing as a term for a cross-dresser who cross-dresses only in private, possibly with close friends or family present but not in full-view of the world)
- Berdache
- Bigendered
- Bona (Roman term literally meaning "good person"; used to refer to one of a group of crossdressing male and female pagan dancers to whom the Romans gave gifts in the hope that the Bonae would grant prosperity to their houses.)
- Buyazi (Gisu African word for a male or female crossdresser; more recently it has also come to imply homosexuality)
- CD (Short for "cross-dresser")
- Clotheshorse (A person who cross-dresses but is unwilling to accept the label "cross-dresser")
- Cotquean
- Coyote ("Native American Trickster god sometimes portrayed as male, some times as female, sometimes as straight, gay, lesbian, or crossdresser of either gender; in some stories he carries his penis in a box on his back."—Gary Bowen's Dictionary of Words for Masculine Women.)
- Creatively gendered
- Cross-dresser
- Drag monarch
- Elxa (Native American term)
- Epicene (Describes a person with characteristics common to both sexes. Alternately, it is also used to describe garments or residences worn or inhabited by both sexes, or words which can be applied to both sexes without any change in gramattical form. More details on this word are available from Raphael Carter's Androgyny RAQ: Angel's Dictionary.)
- False transvestite (A woman pretending to be a man in women's clothes, or a man pretending to be a woman wearing men's clothes, such as the Chevalier d'Eon)
- Flaming
- Fribble
- Genderbender
- Genderbender
- Genderbreaker
- Gender dysphoric
- Gender euphoric
- Genderfree
- Genderfucker
- Gender outlaw
- Genderqueer
- Gender refusenik (Invented by Raphael Carter and popularized in the Androgyny RAQ: Angel's Dictionary as a term for people denied sex-change surgery "whether due to lack of funds or psychological paternalism.")
- Gender transgressor
- Gender trash
- Gender variant
- Guevedoche (Dominican Republic word literally meaning "penis at twelve": An intersexed person who appears female at birth, but whose testicles descend and penis develops at puberty)
- Gynander
- Gynandroid
- Gynandromorph (Scientific term for insects displaying characteristics of multiple sexes)
- Haja (Hausa African term for a man who is sexually penetrated by a partner of either gender, or for a woman who sexually penetrates a partner of either gender)
- Heemaneh (Cheyenne Native American word for an androgynous priest or a lesbian or gay person)
- Hermaphrodite
- Heesh (Genderfree pronoun occasionally used as a noun)
- Hem (Genderfree pronoun occasionally used as a noun)
- Hesh (Genderfree pronoun occasionally used as a noun)
- He-she (Genderfree pronoun occasionally used as a noun)
- Heterogendered
- Heterovestite
- Himmer (Genderfree pronoun occasionally used as a noun)
- Humangendered
- Invert (Used by 19th century sexologists)
- Isangoma (Zulu African word for transgendered priests and priestesses)
- It (Genderfree pronoun occasionally used as a noun)
- Kitesha (Basongye African: "An alternate gender role for males and females; male and female kitesha have sex with one another [and] they may also engage in either homosexual or heterosexual relationships with other non-kitesha members of their communities; the male kitesha partially crossdresses and takes some of the duties assigned to women (eg, the gathering of firewood), but not much is known about the female kitesha."—Gary Bowen's Dictionary of Words for Masculine Women.)
- Ko'lhamana (Zuni Native American: "A male warrior who was conquered by a warrior woman who made him dress in women's clothes."—Gary Bowen's Dictionary of Words for Masculine Women.)
- Kokwima (Acoma Native American word for "hermaphrodite")
- Kwol-aatmo (From the Sambia people of Papua New Guinea, literally meaning "female thing turning into male": An intersexed person "who appears female at birth, but whose testicles descend and penis develops at puberty when the testosterone kicks in."—Gary Bowen's Dictionary of Words for Masculine Women.)
- Metagendered
- Moffie (South African term for a hermaphrodite, queer, or genderqueer person)
- Multigendered
- Mzili (Bagishu African word for a hermaphrodite, queer, or genderqueer person)
- Neutrois
- No name (Pejorative term from Latin America and the Phillippines)
- Nongendered
- Non-op transsexual
- Pandaka (Thai word for a eunuch, hermaphrodite, queer, or genderqueer person)
- Pangendered
- Person
- Polygendered
- PoMogendered (Short for "postmodernly gendered"; inspired by the book PoMoSexuals, edited by Carol Queen and Lawrence Schimel)
- Psychological hermaphrodite
- Queerer
- Recast (Transgendered: "recast as a . . .")
- Salmacian (Invented by Raphael Carter and popularized in the Androgyny RAQ: Angel's Dictionary as a term for male-to-intersex and female-to-intersex transsexuals; derived from the name of the nymph Salamacis, whose body was merged with that of the son of Hermes and Aphrodite in the ancient Greek myth which also gave us the word "hermaphrodite")
- Scrat (Diminutive of "uelscratta" below; Old English for "hermaphrodite")
- Senp'aa (Tewa Native American word meaning "manly woman")
- S/he
- Shapeshifter
- Shih-niang (Ancient Chinese holy person who partially cross-dressed)
- Shim
- Sie
- Spiritual hermaphrodite
- T* (Short for "trans-anything")
- Taikwahni wa'ippe' (Shoshoni Native American word for a female-bodied transgendered person)
- Taikwahni tainnapa' (Shoshoni Native American word for a male-bodied transgendered person)
- TG (Short for "transgendered")
- Third sex
- Tranny
- Trans
- Transcendent
- Transgendered
- Transgenderist (Defines one's transgenderism as a political statement)
- Transexual (Variant spelling invented by Riki Anne Wilchins for the direct action group Transexual Menace)
- Transsexual
- Transsexualist (Defines one's transsexualism as a political statement)
- Transvestite
- TS (Short for "transsexual")
- TV (Short for "transvestite")
- Ubhatobyanjanaka (Thai word for "hermaphrodite")
- Uelscratta (Old English for "hermaphrodite")
- Waeponwifestre (Old English for "hermaphrodite")
- Warharmi (In Tipai Native American culture, a legendary hermaphrodite who gave birth to two sons and established the Tipai culture.)
- Weekend warrior (A person who crosses, bends, or breaks gender on weekends only)
- Wikami (From the name of "a sacred mountain in California, revered by the Mohave, Tipai, Ipai, and Yuma Indians, [which] is the source of the Creator Spirit who made transgendered people, or the hermphrodite spirit that gave culture to each of the tribes"—Gary Bowen's Dictionary of Words for Masculine Women.)
- Wiya numpa (Lakota Sioux Native American for "double woman": a hermaphrodite spirit which appears to males and females and requires them to begin cross-dressing. "When a woman dreams of the Double Woman, from that time on, in everything she makes, no one excels her. But then the woman is very much like a crazy woman. She laughs uncontrollably and so time and again she acts deceptively. She causes all men who stand near her to become possessed. For that reason these women are called Double Women. They are very promiscuous, having many husbands. But then in the things they make no one excels them. They do much quillwork. From then on, they are very skillful. They also do work like a man... Even now, they believe these things are holy."—Thomas Tyon, Lakota American, as quoted in Gary Bowen's Dictionary of Words for Masculine Women.)
- Wobo (Maale African word literally meaning "crooked," often used to refer to gender-bending people)
- Woodworker (A transsexual who prefers to "blend into the woodwork" rather than be openly transsexual)
- Wor sitabane (South African for "possessing both a penis and a vagina"; also often used to refer to feminine gay men)
- Xanith (Term from Oman, referring to a feminine but not castrated man, or to a female eunuch or masculine woman)
- X-dresser (Short for "cross-dresser")
- XDR (Short for "cross-dresser")
- See also: For masculine women
- For feminine men
- For transwomen
- For transmen
- And on the Sexuality.org website, see: "A Dictionary of Words for Masculine Women" by Gary Bowen, from which many of the foreign-language words listed here are taken.
© 2000, 2001 by Gayle Madwin. All rights reserved.