epicene
adjEtymology
From Late Middle English epicene, epicen, epicin, epcyn, episcen, epycen, epycene, epycyn, ypsen (“(grammar) having only one form for masculine and feminine gender, common”), from Late Latin epicoenos, epicoenus (“of a noun: applicable to either males or females”), Latin epicoenon (“noun applicable to either males or females; grammatical gender of such nouns”), from Ancient Greek ἐπίκοινος (epíkoinos, “common to many people, things, etc.; promiscuous, sluttish”) (compare γένος ἐπίκοινον (génos epíkoinon, “common gender”)), from ἐπι- (epi-, prefix meaning ‘on, upon; on top of; all over’) + κοινός (koinós, “common; general, public”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“beside, by, near, with”) + *-yós (suffix forming adjectives from noun stems)).
Definitions
Of or relating to a class of Greek and Latin nouns that may refer to males or females but…
Of or relating to a class of Greek and Latin nouns that may refer to males or females but have a fixed grammatical gender (feminine, masculine, neuter, etc.).
- In many names of animals, the same word with the same gender is used for both sexes: ἡ ἁλὠπηξ the fox, male or female. These are said to be epicoene.
Of or relating to nouns or pronouns in any language that have a single form for male and…
Of or relating to nouns or pronouns in any language that have a single form for male and female referents.
Suitable for use regardless of sex
Suitable for use regardless of sex; unisex.
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Of indeterminate sex, whether asexual, androgynous, hermaphrodite, or intersex
Of indeterminate sex, whether asexual, androgynous, hermaphrodite, or intersex; of a human face, intermediate in form between a man's face and a woman's face.
- Five High School boys came down the road abreast. Ellis saw them coming, a row of yellow, malicious faces—epicene faces, horribly smooth and young, grinning at him with deliberate insolence.
- There is a kind of aesthetic masturbation here akin to Elmer's love of impregnable, virginal epicene women.
Indeterminate
Indeterminate; mixed.
Of a man
Of a man: effeminate.
- A lot of rather etiolated, epicene, middle-class, male intellectuals have discovered a new authenticity when they come to identify themselves as football fans.
An epicene word
An epicene word; preceded by the: the epicene words of a language as a class.
An epicene person, whether biologically asexual, androgynous, hermaphrodite, or intersex
An epicene person, whether biologically asexual, androgynous, hermaphrodite, or intersex; an androgyne, a hermaphrodite.
A transsexual
A transsexual; also, a transvestite.
- Epicoene, or The ſilent VVoman. A comœdie. [title page]
- Of Transvestites and Other Epicenes [article title]
An effeminate man.
The neighborhood
Derived
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for epicene. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA