androgyne

noun

an·​dro·​gyne ˈan-drə-ˌjīn How to pronounce androgyne (audio)
: one that is androgynous

Examples of androgyne in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
In that vein, this is also possibly the studio's queerest movie, featuring as one of its few likable characters a flamboyant Ziggy Stardust androgyne, the high-end thrift shop owner Artie (John McCrea). Sara Stewart, CNN, 29 May 2021 With the cessation of lactation the female reenters somer and becomes once more a perfect androgyne. Harold Bloom, The New Yorker, 20 Nov. 2020 Younger designers seemed keen on re-clothing notions of women and men, with fluorescent expressions of gender fluidity and slinky knitwear for digital androgynes. Troy Patterson, The New Yorker, 10 Sep. 2019 Xerxes is depicted as an androgyne sybarite, his brooding eyes rimmed with kohl, his lips, nose, and ears all pierced with rings linked by delicate golden chains. Myke Cole, The New Republic, 1 Aug. 2019 Bigender [bahy-jen-der] | adjective (bigender people) Someone who identifies with two distinct genders, such as man/woman or woman/androgyne. WSJ, 2 Aug. 2018

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Middle French & Latin; Middle French, "individual having organs of both sexes," borrowed from Latin androgynus "person of indeterminate sex, hermaphrodite," borrowed from Greek andrógynos "hermaphrodite" — more at androgynous

Note: There are two isolated earlier attestations of the word, as androgumus in John of Trevisa's late fourteenth-century translation of Ranulf Higden's Polychronicon, and as androȝinem (apparently accusative) in the late Old English Medicina de quadrupedibus.

First Known Use

12th century, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of androgyne was in the 12th century

Dictionary Entries Near androgyne

Cite this Entry

“Androgyne.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/androgyne. Accessed 24 Nov. 2024.

Medical Definition

androgyne

noun
an·​dro·​gyne ˈan-drə-ˌjīn How to pronounce androgyne (audio)
: an androgynous individual
also : hermaphrodite

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