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transgender, adj. and n.

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Pronunciation: 
Brit. Hear pronunciation/tranzˈdʒɛndə/
, 
Hear pronunciation/trɑːnzˈdʒɛndə/
, 
Hear pronunciation/transˈdʒɛndə/
, 
Hear pronunciation/trɑːnsˈdʒɛndə/
, 
U.S. Hear pronunciation/ˌtrænzˈdʒɛndər/
, 
Hear pronunciation/ˌtræn(t)sˈdʒɛndər/
Frequency (in current use):  Show frequency band information
Origin: Formed within English, by derivation. Etymons: trans- prefix, gender n.
Etymology: < trans- prefix + gender n., after transsexual adj.
 
Compare earlier transgendered adj.  
 
With use as noun compare earlier transgenderal n.   and transgenderist n.
 A. adj.
 

 1. Designating a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond to that person's sex at birth, or which does not otherwise conform to conventional notions of sex and gender.Although now typically used as an umbrella term which includes any or all non-conventional gender identities, in wider use transgender is sometimes used synonymously with the more specific terms transsexual or transvestite.

1974   D. Cordell in Rep. 1st National TV.TS Conf. 16   There is a tendency among trans-gender people to encourage each other. This precludes the very careful self-analysis which must take place in everyone who is proposing to undergo this therapy.
1984   News (Portsmouth) 6 Aug. 1/4   Transgender model Bruce Laker's plans for a white wedding have been dashed.
1994   What constitutes the community? in bit.listserv.gaynet (Usenet newsgroup) 2 Aug.   I personally can not speak for folks who identify as transgender.
2000   Ralph 7 July 66/2   I assume people know I'm transgender.
2016   Walla Walla (Washington) Union Bull. 25 Apr. a3/2   The Pennsylvania legislature is considering a bill that would extend protections to transgender people, including allowing them to use the bathrooms they choose.

1974—2016(Hide quotations)

 
 

 2. Of or characterized by transgenderism; of or relating to transgender people.

1981   Female Mimics Internat. 11 No. 8. 47/2   I steer clear from any ‘far out’ explanation of the transgender phenomenon.
1990   Renaissance News Nov. 7/2   Most transgender groups offer support for the transgendered person only and not their family.
1997   Gender & Society 11 488   For those whose transgender feelings and behaviors began in early childhood, pressures to ‘fit’ into the masculine stereotype..created confusion about identity.
2003   D. Campos Diverse Sexuality & Schools iv. 132   She was able to attend a summer youth leadership seminar where she learned more about transgender issues.
2015   N.Y. Times (National ed.) 8 Feb. (Educ. Life section) 19/1   ‘They’ has become an increasingly popular substitute for ‘he’ or ‘she’ in the transgender community.

1981—2015(Hide quotations)

 
 B. n.
 

 1. A transgender person; (sometimes) spec. a person who is transsexual or transvestite. Also occasionally (with the and plural agreement): transgender people as a class.Cf. note at sense A. 1.

1979   Kenosha (Wisconsin) News 17 Oct. 9/4   Jorgensen says she knows of some male-to-female trans-genders who have settled into lesbian relationships.
1988   Stage 4 Aug. 12/1   Theatrical transgenders now have their own magazine..through which drag artists can find jobs in the theatre.
1999   Transgender Tapestry Spring 72/2   The main panel discussion featured..a feminist activist, a lesbian ‘queer theorist’, a transgender who presented as masculine, and a male feminist professor of gender studies.
2011   Contemp. Sociol. 40 749/2   Transmen (female-to-male transgenders) are often cheerfully accepted by their co-workers.

1979—2011(Hide quotations)

 
 

 2. Transgenderism; transgender identity, experience, etc.

1984   F.M.I.: Female Mimics Internat. 14 No. 4. 29/1   A short list..of books in the science fiction/fantasy field that have elements that might be interesting to people concerned with crossdressing or transgender.
1996   Jrnl. Gay, Lesbian, & Bisexual Identity Apr. 172   A wave of scholarship..has used the phenomenons of transgender and transsexualism to point out the limits of gender.
2015   chroniclelive.co.uk (Newcastle) (Nexis) 2 Sept.   It's a romantic comedy..that will undoubtably gently educate people who watch it who have no idea about the subject of and issues around transgender.

1984—2015(Hide quotations)

 

Compounds

 
 

  transgender umbrella   n. the range of non-conventional gender identities covered by the use of transgender as a generic and inclusive term (see note at sense A. 1); the term transgender as used in this way.Originally and frequently in diagrams showing the gender identities covered by the term.

1994   L. L. Rodgers & T. Gravel in J. Green Investig. Discrim. Transgender People (Human Rights Comm. San Francisco) App. E. 68 (caption)    ‘Transgender umbrella’..: crossdresser ‘drag’; tranvestic [sic] fetishist; transvestite; androgyne; transgenderist; transsexual; man/woman.
2003   Jrnl. Bisexuality 3 188   The butch femme fits under the transgender umbrella only insofar as she plays with traditional gender definitions.
2014   Gazette (Colorado Springs) 14 Feb. a10/5   In the past decade..the transgender umbrella has been growing well beyond transsexuals to encompass a wide variety of gender identities.

1994—2014(Hide quotations)

 

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    This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2018; latest version published online July 2020).

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