Transgender

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Pronunciation: /tɹænzˈd͡ʒɛndə/

Definitions

1. Relating to individuals whose personal sense of gender contrasts with the biological sex assigned at their birth
2. Pertaining to those who embrace a gender identity that differs from societal norms linked to their physical sex characteristics
3. Describing a person whose gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth

Etymology: The adjective "transgender" was coined in the 1960s, and its path to common use runs through a term its inventor was trying to replace. In 1965, the American psychiatrist John F. Oliven used "transgenderism" in a medical manual, arguing that "transexualism" was misleading because the condition concerned gender rather than sexuality. The new formation was built from "trans-", meaning "across" or "through", and "gender", which came into English from Old French "gendre" and ultimately from Latin "genus", "kind" or "birth". The adjective appears to have been shaped on the model of "transsexual", and in the decades that followed a cluster of related forms, such as "transgenderal" and "transgendered", spread alongside it. By the 1990s, the word had taken on its current meaning and had largely displaced "transsexual", which had been the older term for the same general experience. The noun and verb uses developed from the adjective, so the word began as a qualifier and only later became a name for people.

Synonyms: gender diverse, gender non-conforming

Antonyms: cisgender