Degender

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To remove or eliminate gender distinctions or markers from language, behavior, or perception; to neutralize or make free from gender identification or bias; to render something non-gender-specific
2. To strip away or reduce elements that denote or imply gender roles or characteristics; to neutralize gender references in speech, writing, or social practices; to transform or reinterpret in a way that avoids gender classification
3. To erase or downplay gender differences in various contexts such as language, social interaction, and identity; to adopt or promote approaches that do not recognize binary or traditional gender categories; to modify content to become inclusive of all gender identities or none at all

Etymology: "Degender" is a modern formation built from two English parts: the prefix "de-", meaning "remove or reverse", and "gender". The "de-" element is what gives the verb its sense of taking something away, so "degender" means to strip out gender distinctions, the same way "decode" or "defrost" reverse an earlier state. The "gender" half has a longer ancestry. It came into English from Old French "gendre", which traces back to Latin "genus", meaning kind or sort. The grammatical sense of the word, which sorts nouns into classes, is the one that was first in English, and only later did "gender" come to refer to the social and personal identities that the verb now targets. The source also connects "degender" to Latin "degenerare", which meant to depart from one's kind or race. That word is the origin of "degenerate", but the two verbs are not the same word. "Degender" was formed in English on the pattern of "de-" plus "gender", and the Latin "degenerare" is a separate, older word that shares the prefix.