Transsexuality

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The condition of having a gender identity that differs from the sex a person was assigned at birth
2. The state of identifying with a gender other than the one matching one's sex assigned at birth
3. A personal sense of belonging to a gender different from the sex recorded for a person at birth

Etymology: "Transsexuality" is built from two existing English words, which is why its history is mostly a matter of how the pieces fit together. It can be read as "trans-" attached to "sexuality," or as the noun "transsexual" with the suffix "-ity" added to it. The second route is the more likely one, since "transsexual" was already in use, and "-ity" is the common English suffix that turns an adjective into a noun denoting a quality or state. The prefix "trans-" comes from Latin, where it means "across" or "beyond," and it appears in English words such as "transatlantic" and "transfer." In "transsexual," it signals a move across or beyond the sex a person was assigned at birth. "Sexuality" supplies the core idea of sex and sexual nature, so the combined form names the condition or quality associated with being transsexual.

Synonyms: transsexualism