Transsexualism

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The state of identifying with a gender other than the one assigned at birth ; the wish to live and be recognized as a member of that other gender through social or medical transition
2. A personal identity in which a person's inner sense of gender differs from their assigned sex ; a longing to be accepted as the gender one feels oneself to be, sometimes pursued through hormones or surgery
3. The condition of having a gender identity that does not match the sex recorded at birth ; the aspiration to live openly as the other gender, which may involve medical treatment or changes in social role

Etymology: Transsexualism is a compound built from "transsexual" plus the suffix "-ism", and the parts of "transsexual" are what give the word its shape. The first half, "trans-", comes from Latin, where it meant "across" or "beyond", and it appears in English in words like "transatlantic". The second half, "sexual", comes from Latin "sexualis", derived from "sexus" (sex), which is itself linked to the Latin verb "secare", meaning "to cut" or "divide", reflecting the old idea of sex as a division of the species into two. The "-ism" ending, borrowed through Latin from Greek "-ismos", is a common suffix for forming nouns that name a condition, practice, or doctrine. Adding it to "transsexual" produced a noun for the condition or state the adjective describes, so the word reads literally as the state of being transsexual.

Synonyms: transsexuality