transvestite
/tɹænzˈvɛs.taɪt/ · noun
Meaning
- A person who sometimes wears clothes traditionally worn by and associated with the opposite sex; typically a male who cross-dresses occasionally by habit or personal choice.
- A person, typically a heterosexual male, who compulsively seeks and derives paraphilic sexual arousal from cross-dressing, especially if the urges and behavior cause the patient distress or social impairment.
- An animal that engages in sexual mimicry.
Etymology / origin
Borrowed from Latin trāns + vestītus, form of vestiō (“to clothe, to dress”) (as in English vestment, vest). Literally, a "cross-dresser". From transvestitism, from German Transvestitismus, coined in 1910 by Magnus Hirschfeld (the practice itself is much older).
- Transvestitismus(de)→
- trāns(la)→
- transvestite (English)
- Relations: bor, bor
Related words
Descendant words
Sources
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