epicene

epicœne (alternative)
epicoene (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-epicene.wav

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)).

refn

From the collection of the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany.

der

Q. How will you diſtinguiſh the Maſculine hic from the Epicene hic, and the Feminine hæc from the Epicene hæc? / A. That word that hath hic before it, and is onely male, is the Maſculine gender: but if it be both male and female, then it is the Epicene Gender: and ſo hæc before a female, is feminine, but hæc before a word that contains under it both ſexes, is Epicene.

1665, Ch[arles] Hoole, “Of a Noun”, in The Terminations and Examples of the Declensions and Conjugations: […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Printed by John Field, printer to the University, →OCLC, page 55:

Epicene nouns are equally misunderstood: they are of one gender only. These, like the common, represent under one word each member of a pair of animals—the male and the female: thus passer—a sparrow—denotes the cock sparrow, as well as the hen: but in the use of these words there is no variation of the gender: they are invariably used in one gender only: thus passer is of the masculine gender: and though used for the purpose of representing the hen-sparrow; still every adjective or participle connected with it must be used in the masculine gender: [...] In short, epicene nouns differ from the common in this only; that they do not vary their genders in accordance with nature: they invariably keep to one gender.

1843, Richard Haynes, “Of Nouns Substantive”, in A Commentary on the Eton Latin-grammar. … Orthography and Etymology, Bristol: Printed and published for the author, by John Wright & Co., […], →OCLC, part II (Etymology), section 3 (Genders of Nouns Substantive), page 9:

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.

1862, James Hadley, “Nouns”, in A Greek Grammar, for Schools and Colleges, New York, N.Y., London: D. Appleton and Company, […], →OCLC, part second (Inflection), paragraph 118, page 32:

Ovis, therefore, is epicene, and, moreover, a true epicene, like volpes, aquila, merula, avis, panthera, corvus, and others. It is epicene, because it has just been proved to be the generic term for sheep without thought for sex, to have only one grammatical gender, feminine, and yet, as a true epicene, to be carried to its logical development, so that on a few occasions, such as we have encountered in Ovid, and in [Marcus Terentius] Varro, it is employed strictly of the male.

1917, Horace Wetherill Wright, The Sacra Idulia in Ovid’s Fasti: A Study of Ovid’s Credibility in Regard to the Place and the Victim of this Sacrifice, Newark, N.J.: The Essex Press, →OCLC, page 45:

(linguistics) 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.).

ἐπίκοινος

of or relating to a class of Greek and Latin nouns that may refer to males or females but have a fixed grammatical gender

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.

1934 October, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Burmese Days, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, →OCLC; republished as chapter 22, in Burmese Days (ebook no. 0200051h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, November 2015:

The 1960's may well be remembered as the epicene era. Boys grew long hair and bangs; girls adopted trousers, vests and peaked caps – and with everyone wearing tight pants and boots, your guess is as good as ours whether that was a guy or a gal who just went by!

[1969], “Verbia” [pseudonym], with Miriam Berg, A Play on Words, [New York, N.Y.]: Macmillan, →OCLC, page 160:

There is a kind of aesthetic masturbation here akin to Elmer's love of impregnable, virginal epicene women.

1974, Thomas McHaney, “The Elmer Papers: [William] Faulkner’s Comic Portraits of the Artist”, in James B. Meriwether, editor, A Faulkner Miscellany, Jackson, Miss.: Published for the Mississippi Quarterly by the University of Mississippi Press, →ISBN, page 49; quoted in Panthea Reid Broughton, “The Economy of Desire: Faulkner’s Poetics, From Eroticism to Post-Impressionism”, in John T. Matthews and Judith Bryant Wittenberg, editor, The Faulkner Journal [Special Issue: Faulkner and Feminisms], volume 4, numbers 1 and 2, Akron, Oh.: University of Akron, fall 1988 – spring 1989, published fall 1991, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 167:

‘The actor was male. He wasn’t one of Jim’s regulars. But the character I recognize in the door is epicene.’

1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 939:

A few boys still playing ringolievio, haphazard and half speed, the clumsy fatboy trapped in the den, always caught, always it, the slightly epicene butterfat bulk, the boy who's always reaching down to lift a droopy sock and getting swift-kicked by the witlings and sadists. Is that what being it means? Neutered, sexless, impersonalized.

1997, Don DeLillo, Underworld, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, →ISBN; 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, 2003, →ISBN, part 6, page 675:

(biology and figuratively) 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.


epicene

Onely one Iſland they have, is call'd the Iſle of the Epecœnes, becauſe there under one Article both kindes are ſignified, for they are faſhioned alike, male and female the ſame, [...] you doe not know the delight of the Epicœnes in Moon-ſhine.

1620 January 17 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Newes from the New World Discover’d in the Moon. A Masque, […]”, in The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The Second Volume. […] (Second Folio), London: […] Richard Meighen, published 1640–1641, →OCLC, page 44:

Again, the division of the higher forms of animal life into males and females—obnoxious as it is to the champions of the Woman's Rights Movement, and inconvenient as it proves to a certain class of world-betterers—can neither be abrogated nor explained away. There is, to be sure, a time in the life of hen pheasants, and other female gallinaceous birds, when they—in the magniloquent language of a weekly literary organ of epicœnes and garotters—"rise up and look their tyrant in the face," in the hope that, "ever after, he will sit uneasily on his" roost.

1875 January, “IV. The Boundary between Man and the Lower Animals.”, in William Crookes, editor, The Quarterly Journal of Science, and Annals of Mining, Metallurgy, Engineering, Industrial Arts, Manufactures, and Technology, volume V (New Series; volume XII (Old Series)), London: Offices of the Quarterly Journal of Science, […], →OCLC, page 64:

(biology and figuratively) An epicene person, whether biologically asexual, androgynous, hermaphrodite, or intersex; an androgyne, a hermaphrodite.

Epicoene, or The ſilent VVoman. A comœdie. [title page]

[1609 December (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, page 525:

Of Transvestites and Other Epicenes [article title]

1965 March, David Lee Pagari, “Of Transvestites and Other Epicenes”, in Paul Krassner, editor, The Realist: Freethought Criticism and Satire, number 57, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-11-15, page 24:

(by extension) A transsexual; also, a transvestite.


termagant

termagants (plural)
termigant (alternative)

/ˈtɜɹməɡənt/

PIE word
 *tréyes
The noun is derived from Termagant (“fictitious deity with a violent temperament represented as being worshipped by Muslims or other non-Christians”), from Middle English Termagaunt (“fictitious deity represented as being worshipped by Muslims; any pagan god”), from Anglo-Norman Tervagant, Tervagaunt, Tervagan, and Old French Tervagant, Tervagan (possibly with the addition of Anglo-Norman -aunt, Old French -ant (suffix forming past participles of verbs, some of which were used as nouns); modern French Tervagant (historical)); further etymology uncertain, one common suggestion being that it is from Latin ter (“three times, thrice”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes (“three”)) + vagāns (“rambling, wandering”) (the present active participle of vagor (“to ramble, roam, wander”), from vagus (“rambling, roaming, wandering”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *Hwogos) + -or (inflected form of -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)). Medieval French chansons de geste named Termagant as one of three deities supposedly worshipped by Muslims, the others being Apollin and Mahound, and the name may allude to the wandering of the moon (the crescent moon being a common symbol of Islam) in the form of the mythological goddesses Selene in heaven, Diana on earth, and Proserpina in the underworld.
The reason for the shift in meaning from the fictitious deity to a brawling and turbulent person is unclear.
The adjective is derived from the noun.

der

They [authors] would not suffer the stout'st Dame, / To swear by Hercules his Name, / Make feeble Ladies, in their Works, / To fight like Termagants and Turks; […]

1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto II.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 38:

This Girl is ſo exceſſively ill-bred, and ſuch an arrant Termagant, that I cou'd as ſoon fall in love vvith a Tigreſs. She hath a handſom Face, 'tis true, but in her Temper ſhe is a very Fury.

a. 1733 (date written), [John] Gay, Achilles. An Opera. […], London: […] J[ohn] Watts […], published 1733, →OCLC, Act II, scene ii, page 27:

[T]he Widow Chupin […] poured forth a torrent of invective upon Gevrol and his agents, accusing them of persecuting her family […] At first the General tried to impose silence upon the terrible termagant; but he soon discovered that he was powerless; besides all his subordinates were laughing.

1894, Émile Gaboriau, chapter 1, in Laura E. Kendall, transl., Monsieur Lecoq […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: Peter Fenelon Collier, →OCLC, page 15:

The name of Xanthippe, the wife of Socrates, has become proverbial for a termagant.

1907, Plato, “[Index] Σωκράτης, -ους”, in edited by Isaac Flagg, The Apology and Crito, New York, N.Y.; Cincinnati, Oh.: American Book Company, →OCLC, page 196, column 2:

Easier divorce, equal pay for equal work as between men and women, no discrimination between the sexes in employment—these were her causes, and in promoting them she was no comic-strip feminist termagant, but reasonable, logical, and untiring.

1970, Robertson Davies, “The Soirée of Illusions”, in Fifth Business […], Toronto, Ont.: Macmillan of Canada, →ISBN, section 3, page 282:

(specifically, derogatory) A censorious, nagging, and quarrelsome woman; a scold, a shrew.

fúria

censorious, nagging, and quarrelsome woman — see also shrew

老虎乸 (lou⁵ fu² naa², literally “tigress”)

潑婦 /泼妇 (pōfù, literally “violent woman”)


PMS

en-noun

PMS (countable and uncountable, plural PMSs)

Coordinate term: PMDD

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) takes a lot of bashing in the media. It is true that many women become more aggressive during this period, though they are rarely out of control...Therefore, any PMS symptoms that are perceived as unstable are due to the fact that women act more like men during this phase than at any other time in their cycles.

1951, Edain McCoy, Celtic Women's Spirituality:

By recognising PMS as a clinical entity women are allowed to Indulge In socially disapproved behaviours, and thus have a safety valve for their resentment.

1980, British Social Biology Council, Social Biology and Human Affairs:

Holden, Banky, this pile of PMS is Alyssa Jones.

1997, Kevin Smith, Chasing Amy, spoken by Hooper:

By internalizing ideational valuations of PMS, men and women reinforce the appearance of a psychosomatic constitution of PMS.

2006, Kristen Brown, Nietzsche And Embodiment: Discerning Bodies and Non-Dualism:

This is called premenstrual syndrome, or PMS. It is not well defined, and more than 100 different symptoms have been attributed to PMS

2006, Phyllis Greenberger, Jennifer Wider, editors, The Savvy Woman Patient: How and Why Sex Difference Affect Your Health:

premenstrual syndrome
premenstrual syndrome#English

(medicine, uncountable) Initialism of premenstrual syndrome or premenstrual stress.

package management system
package management system#English

(computing, countable) Initialism of package management system.

PMS: Performance-management system

2006, Organisation for Economic Co-operation, “Survey on Harmonisation and Alignment of Donor Practices: Measuring Aid Harmonisation and Alignment in 14 Partner Countries”, in Development, list of acronyms:

performance management system
performance management system#English

Initialism of performance management system.

A more comprehensive system now being marketed by IBM, PMS (Project Management System), includes resource allocation.

1971, Boyd C. Paulson, Man-computer Concepts for Project Management:

Mr. Tiernan. ...You have [a chart of] performance based on average design and construction performance before PMS. What is PMS? Mr. Starobin. Project Management System.

1974, United States. Congress. House. Appropriations, District of Columbia Appropriations for 1974:

We see many changes needed, and IS/IT solutions include executive information system (ElS), project management system (PMS), research library system (RLS), customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resources planning (ERP), electronic market places (EMS), and knowledge management system (KMS).

2006, Petter Gottschalk, E-Business Strategy, Sourcing And Governance:

project management system
w:project management system

Initialism of project management system.


PMS

en-verb

PMS (third-person singular simple present PMSes, present participle PMSing, simple past and past participle PMSed)

PMSes (present singular third-person)
PMSing (participle present)
PMSed (participle past)
PMSed (past)

Clarice raised an eyebrow. “I think I'm getting my period, so there's no guarantees it won't happen again.”.[…]“I'm feeling a little PMSed myself. Let's take it out on the cops next time.” “Deal.” Clarice smiled, feeling in control once more.

2019, Henry Roi, With Her Fists, Next Chapter:

premenstrual syndrome
premenstrual syndrome

(informal, intransitive) To experience premenstrual syndrome or premenstrual stress.


PMS

(astronomy, of a star) Initialism of pre-main sequence.


preggers

Michael's troubles may be over soon, except that Christal claims to be preggers with triplets.

2007-07-14, Kyrie O'Connor, “Bluff the Listener”, in Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me, National Public Radio:

(informal) Pregnant; carrying developing offspring within one's body.


erectile dysfunction

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-erectile dysfunction.wav

The observation that topical application of nitroglycerin to the penis may lead to erection adequate for sexual intercourse (Talley and Crawley 1985) has stimulated several investigations on the efficacy of this potential mode of treatment of erectile dysfunction.

1998, Alvaro Morales, editor, Erectile Dysfunction: Issues in Current Pharmacotherapy, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 107:

(medicine, pathology) The inability of a male to achieve or sustain an erection.


harridan

Perhaps a modification of French haridelle (“old horse, nag”).

Why is that tattling old harridan, Peggy O'Dowd, to make free with my name at her d—d supper-table, and advertise my engagement over the three kingdoms?

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 13, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

Well there was one old lady, and a drunken old harridan she was surely, that paid all her attention to me.

1916 December 29, James Joyce, chapter I, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 37:

A vicious and scolding woman, especially an older one.


up the duff

Unknown; the OED states that the phrase was originally Australian. Possibly related to in the pudding club (duff is a type of pudding) and thus related to dough.

Lynda up the duff—what odds do you put on that, eh, Mr Clever Dick, eh? That's shut his gob. That's put a crease in his brand-new suit.

1987, David Leland, Wish You Were Here, spoken by Lynda Mansell (Emily Lloyd):

At 19, he was married (‘only because she was up the duff’ he explains gallantly).

1994, The Daily Telegraph, quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms, page 88, 2nd edition, 2005:

“Well, when he found out that my gran was up the duff, he went back to his native Norway (or it might have been Sweden)[…].”

1998, Tracey Ullman, Tracey Takes On..., page 98:

It just means that some daft wee hairy that gets knocked up the duff has tae get oan the bus tae Carlisle tae get cleaned oot.

1998, Irvine Welsh, Filth, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 191:

The great coalface of fuckwits; the fly-by-nighters, who do their five years in Bondi, befriend a Roosters player, get a good coke dealer, meet some tight westie bitch who′s moved here while she works a job in PR, they fall in love, she gets up the duff and then they have to buy a house in Condell Park and they′re gone[…].

2008, Sam de Brito, The Lost Boys, page 14:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial, slang) Pregnant.


heifer

Inherited from Middle English heyfre, hayfre, heyfer, from Old English hēahfore, hēahfru, of disputed origin; see the Old English entry for more discussion.

And the Lord ſpake vnto Moſes and vnto Aaron, ſaying, This is the ordinance of the Law, which the Lord hath commaunded, ſaying, Speak vnto the childꝛen of Iſrael, that they bꝛing thee a red heifer without ſpot, wherein is no blemiſh, and vpon which neuer came yoke.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 19:1–2:

We muſt be neat; not neat, but cleanly, Captaine: / And yet the Steere, the Heycfer^([sic]), and the Calfe, / Are all call'd Neat.

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 278:

The breath of the mountain heifer was fragrant as the gales of Sirendiep, by feeding on ſpicy herbs.

1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iv:

A young female cow, (particularly) one over one year old but which has not calved.


mankind

From Middle English mankinde, alteration (due to kinde = “kind, nature, sort”) of earlier mankin, from Old English mancynn. Equivalent to man + kin, and/or man + -kind. Cognate with Scots mankind, Middle High German mankünne, Danish mandkøn, Icelandic mannkyn (“mankind”). See also mankin.

The examples of all ages shew us that mankind in general desire power only to do harm, and, when they obtain it, use it for no other purpose.

1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:

Malone's hot blood flushed to his head as he thought of this trifler, this insect, coming between mankind and a message of instruction and consolation descending from above.

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.

2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion:

It next moves through the history of the Jewish people, recounting the life and death of our Lord and Savior, and ends with the Book of Revelation foretelling the inevitable climax of God's plan for mankind.

2011, David Charles Cole, Understanding God's Message for Mankind: Essential Scripture and Commentary, page 1:


andropause

From andro- + -pause, based on menopause.

(medicine, endocrinology) The male equivalent of the menopause in women; characterized by a decline in libido and overall energy.


bummer

From German Bummler (“a drifter, a stroller, a rambler, a loiterer, a laggard”), from bummeln (“loaf, loiter, stroll, ramble”).

bor

(obsolete, historical) A forager, especially in Sherman's March to the Sea of November to December 1864.

“If I get away I sha’n’t be here,” I says, “to prove these rapscallions ain’t your uncles, and I couldn’t do it if I was here. I could swear they was beats and bummers, that’s all, though that’s worth something.

1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXVIII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:

(US, slang, dated) An idle, worthless fellow, without any visible means of support; a dissipated sponger.

A lamb (typically the smallest of a multiple birth) which has been abandoned by its mother or orphaned, and as a consequence is raised in part or in whole by humans.


bummer

From bum (“make unhappy”) + -er (agent noun suffix), originally US drug slang.

af

This young man never had a bummer in some 33 LSD trips. Every one of the them was a delight—everything under control. He needed only to snap his fingers, and down he came, anytime. But on Voyage 34, he finally met himself coming down an up staircase, and the encounter was crushing.

2000, “Phase I”, in Voyage 34: The Complete Trip, performed by Porcupine Tree:

(slang, dated, drug use) A psychedelic crisis; hallucinogenic drug use producing undesirable dysphoric psychological effects, most often fear, paranoia, and especially horrifying hallucinations; a bad trip.


bummer

From bum (“engage in anal sex”) + -er (agent noun suffix).

You know, the kind of guy who would, if he wasn't gay, probably be shouting ‘Oi, gay boy!’ or ‘You bummer!’ or even ‘Oi, paki!’ or what have you. They're not enlightened.

Matt (interviewee) quoted in 2021, Laura Dixon, Gender, Sexuality and National Identity in the Lives of British Lifestyle Migrants in Spain (page 108)

(UK, slang, derogatory, offensive) A gay man.


bredrin

Everybody smiling and relax like they was all bredrin now.

2022, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, When We Were Birds, Hamish Hamilton, page 25:

(Rastafari) A close male friend, family member, or comrade.


thealogy

en-noun

thealogy (countable and uncountable, plural thealogies)

From Ancient Greek θεά (theá, “goddess”) + -logy.

The study of or reflection upon the or a goddess, or the feminine divine, e.g. from a feminist viewpoint.


gal

→ Icelandic: gella

desctree

→ Japanese: ギャル (gyaru)
→ English: gyaru

Borrowed from Jamaican Creole gyal (“girl”), from English girl.

bor+

Coordinate term: guy


PBA

partial-birth abortion
partial-birth abortion#English


suffragette

/ˌsʌf.ɹəˈd͡ʒɛt/

From suffrage + -ette, first used as a derisive label by the Daily Mail in 1906, but eventually adopted by the WSPU itself.

Perhaps no single location resonates for women’s rights campaigners today as much as Holloway, the first female-only prison, where militant suffragettes were incarcerated, went on hunger strike and were savagely force-fed.

2018 February 2, “Smashed windows, broken rules: the dark suffragette sites of London”, in The Guardian, retrieved 2021-07-11:

(historical) A female supporter, often militant, of women's right to vote in the early 20th century, especially in Great Britain.

sufražetka

female supporter of women's right to vote


sarge

From sergeant, q.v. In reference to PUA slang, coined by American writer and television personality Ross Jeffries after the behavior of his cat Sarge.

coinage

I did not interpret this advice correctly at first and in the same sarge as the hand-slap Juggler observed that she was really into me and liking my game but a little annoyed that I kept encroaching on her by moving myself closer to her while keeping myself square.

2003 March 4, SexPDX, “Juggler Workshop Review and Lay Report (VERY LONG)”, in alt.seduction.fast (Usenet):

I thought it would be funny and depressing to join them on what they call the "Saturday Sarge." A sarge is when a group of morons roam around looking for girls to annoy. Sounds gr8 right?

2012 September 25, Matt Jenkins, Bertie Brandes, “My Day Out with the London Seduction Society”, in VICE, archived from the original on 2023-07-23:

(seduction community) An instance of sarging.


sarge

en-verb

sarge (third-person singular simple present sarges, present participle sarging, simple past and past participle sarged)

sarges (present singular third-person)
sarging (participle present)
sarged (participle past)
sarged (past)
Sarge (alternative)

Sure, the echoes of PUA raise concerns and I have no doubt Saturday Sarge has its fair share of men just wanting to pick up women for sex (Phil says in the four years he's sarged he's only slept with about 10 – the same amount another sarger says he's slept with in the last six months).

2014 October 18, Gareth May, “Saturday Sarge: meet the men who go hunting for women”, in The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-03-01:

(intransitive, seduction community) To go out and engage women in order to pick them up.


aviatrix

en-noun

aviatrix (plural aviatrices or aviatrixes)

“... — Did you know that she was an aviatrix?” he interjected.

1969, William Dana Orcutt, Celebrities Off Parade: Pen-and-ink Portrait Sketches, →ISBN, page 111:

The Women Flyers: From Aviatrix to Astronaut

1987, Pat Browne, Heroines of Popular Culture, →ISBN, page 54:

Hariet Quimby, a writer for Leslie's Weekly, in 1911 became the first American aviatrix and won international accalim in 1912 as the first woman to pilot a plan across the English Channel.

2001, Roger E. Bilstein, Flight in America: From the Wrights to the Astronauts, →ISBN, page 22:

In 1929 she turned an ide that she ‘stole’ from her son into a screenplay, Wings in the Dark, featuring a protagonist based on Ameria Earhart, the famous aviatrix with whom Shipman was acquainted...

2002, Deena Mandrell, Deadbeat Dads: Subjectivity and Social Construction, →ISBN, page 307:

2018 summary of 2009 film Amelia
From the time she first sits in the pilot's seat, aviatrix Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank) feels destined to achieve great things.


misogyny

misogyny (usually uncountable, plural misogynies)

From Ancient Greek μισογυνία (misogunía) and μισογύνης (misogúnēs, “woman hater”), from μισέω (miséō, “I hate”) + γυνή (gunḗ, “woman”). By surface analysis, miso- + -gyny.

Although she argues against a simplistic conflation of types of prejudice, she suggests that misogyny is typically present in both narcissistic and obsessive forms of anti-Semitic prejudice.

1999, Joanne Marie Greer, David O. Moberg, Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, →ISBN, page 29:

His misogyny, like that of his predecessors, is more than prejudice; […]

1999, Ethel Spector Person, The Sexual Century, →ISBN, page 84:

[…] a lonely straight male had no equivalently forgiving Theory of Masculinism to help him out of this bind, this key to all misogynies: […]

2001, Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections:

This ontological symbiosis also explains his misogyny. By envying Sue, as the man he cannot become, he projects his self-loathing onto her, trying to diminish what he actually admires.

2005, Jeff Johnson, William Inge And The Subversion Of Gender, →ISBN, page 122:

2006, Jack Holland, Misogyny: the world's oldest prejudice, →ISBN:

[…] I have always found it hard that Hamlet, a character that I love and admire, is guilty of a puerile misogyny and, perhaps, more worryingly, of the unnecessary deaths of his old friends from university, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. When I played him, I could find reasons for the misogyny but half-ignored the murders.

2014 April 12, Simon Russell Beale, “Why Shakespeare always says something new: As the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth approaches, the great Shakespearean actor Simon Russell Beale explains his secrets [print version: The king and I]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review), London, page R7:

Hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women.


misandry

misandry (usually uncountable, plural misandries)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-misandry.wav

Formed in the late 19th century as mis- (“hatred”) + -andry (“men”) by analogy with misogyny; compare the Ancient Greek μισανδρία (misandría), from μισέω (miséō, “hate”) + ἀνήρ (anḗr, “man”).

The scenework proves unsuccessful when Carmichael recalls not the source of her misandry but another episode of overacting, that of castratively biting off the moustache of an amorous man.

2016, Leslie H. Abramson, Hitchcock & the Anxiety of Authorship:

Hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against men.


misandrist

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-misandrist.wav

A misandrist hates all men, and a philandrist likes them.

2000, David Macfarlane, Mail & guardian bedside book, 2000, page 46:

Others support Harmange and Coffin, yet stop short of calling themselves misandrists.

2021 October 1, Laura Cappelle, “With ‘I Hate Men,’ a French Feminist Touches a Nerve”, in The New York Times:

One who professes misandry; a hater of men.

мужчынаненавісніца

one who professes misandry; a hater of men


cope

Etymology tree
Old French couperbor.
English cope
From Middle English coupen, from Old French couper (“to strike, to cut”).

etymon

There was some public grousing about the number of white supremacists attempting to recruit, however; some incels argued that white supremacy was just another "cope"–just another self-deluding attempt to cover over the grim truth of the blackpill.

2019, Talia Lavin, Culture Warlords: My Journey Into the Dark Web of White Supremacy, unnumbered page:

My only 2 copes for the past 3 years have been food & the internet/surfing. Both of these copes have only hurt me further as I have addictions to both sugar and the internet now and have isolated myself further and further into the oblivion.

2020, anonymous, quoted in Jacob Conley, "Efficacy, Nihilism, and Toxic Masculinity Online: Digital Misogyny in the Incel Subculture", thesis submitted to The Ohio State University, page 18

Just as it sounds, a Gymcel is an incel who goes to the gym a lot, which in their mind is a cope.

2020, Brian Whitney, The "Supreme Gentleman" Killer: The True Story of an Incel Mass Murderer, unnumbered page:

(slang) A coping mechanism or self-delusion one clings to in order to endure a hopeless situation.


cope

en-verb

cope (third-person singular simple present copes, present participle coping, simple past and past participle coped)

copes (present singular third-person)
coping (participle present)
coped (participle past)
coped (past)

From Middle English copen, borrowed from Middle Dutch copen. Cognate with Dutch kopen, German kaufen.


obstetric

From Medical Latin obstetricus (“belonging to a midwife”), from Latin obstētrīx (“midwife”).

bor

obstetric clinic

For Wenham, the most striking statistic from Sierra Leone, one of the countries worst affected by Ebola, was that from 2013 to 2016, during the outbreak, more women died of obstetric complications than the infectious disease itself.

2020 March 19, Helen Lewis, “The Coronavirus Is a Disaster for Feminism”, in The Atlantic:

Of or relating to obstetrics (the care of women during and after pregnancy).


obstetrics

ob. (alternative)
obs. (alternative)
obstet. (alternative)
obstetr. (alternative)
obstetricks (alternative)

Coordinate term: gynecology

(medicine) The care of women during and after pregnancy.


hermaphroditism

en-noun

hermaphroditism (countable and uncountable, plural hermaphroditisms)

Among other organisms, alternative methods of reproduction include budding, hermaphroditism (one individual carrying both kinds of sex organs) and isogamy (two individuals, not distinguished as male and female, combining their genes).

2018 April 24, John Launer, “Do We Even Need Men?”, in Literary Hub:

(biology) Being able to reproduce as both male and female, either simultaneously (simultaneous hermaphroditism or cosexuality) or sequentially (sequential hermaphroditism or dichogamy).

hermafroditisme

state of having both male and female sexual organs


androgyny

androgyny (usually uncountable, plural androgynies)

androgynies (plural)
androgony (alternative)

/ænˈdɹɑd͡ʒəni/


missus

Representing a typical pronunciation of Mrs, a corrupted form of Mistress.

Harry said he couldn't stop and chat because his missus wanted to go shopping.

The missus has a list of chores for me to do this weekend.

Sometimes I find myself sitting back and reminiscing / Especially when I have to watch other people kissing / And I remember when you started calling me your missus / All the play fighting, all the flirtatious disses

2006, “Littlest Things”, in Alright, Still, performed by Lily Allen:

Imagine you have driven past a restaurant and thought to yourself, 'That would be a nice place to take the missus for an evening out,' and in no time at all you have found yourself flicking through the Yellow Pages in search of the phonenumber.

2013, Jeff Jenkins, Watching The World, Andrews UK Limited, →ISBN:


murse

Scrubs used this one recently, where Elliot couldn't cope with the idea of dating a male nurse ("murse") and Carla was having trouble accepting Turk's marriage proposal:


amniotic fluid embolism

amniotic fluid embolism (plural amniotic fluid embolisms)

(pathology) A complication of pregnancy characterized by movement of amniotic fluid past the placenta


thon

head

thon (third-person singular, gender-neutral, possessive thons, reflexive thonself)

Proposed in 1858 by Charles Crozat Converse from that + one. Compare also dialectal English and Scots thon (“that; yon”, adjective; pronoun).

Every writer has "thons" verbal likes and dislikes, yet, for the sake of convenience, I trust that even "thon" who dislikes verbal innovations will give my little word a little trial and note for me the result.

1889 November, C. Crozat Converse, “That Desired Impersonal Pronoun”, in The Writer, volume 3, number 2, Boston: William H. Hills, page 248:

Every student should acquaint thonself with some method by which thon can positively correlate the facts of thons knowledge.

1895, Henry Graham Williams, Outlines of Psychology, 3rd edition, Syracuse: C. W. Bardee, →OL, LCC BF141.W12, page 5:

In everi individɥɑl then, ɑr thε elεments ɑut ɵv hwich everi sol haz pɑuer tu ɛlaborɞt ʊntu thonself hwɵtever cɵndishʊn thon dɛzɩrz — tu mɞc fɷr thonself heven ɷr hel, hwichever thon iz wiliŋ tu strɩv fɷr.

1907 August, C. W. Larisunz, “Thε Sol:—Hwens?—Hwither?”, in Thε Jurnɑl ɵv ɷrthɵεpi & ɷrthɵgrɑfi, volume 24, number 8, page 153:

In every individual then, are the elements out of which every soul has power to elaborate unto thonself whatever condition thon desires — to make for thonself heaven or hell, whichever thon is willing to strive for.

Maybe I don't speak for the average American, but I very much doubt that thon wants that word in thons language or that thon would use it thonself.

1985, William Knowlton Zinsser, On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction, 3rd edition, New York: Harper & Row, →ISBN, →LCCN, LCC PE1429.Z5 1985, page 121:

(nonstandard, rare, see usage notes) they (singular). Gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun, coordinate with gendered pronouns he and she.

If Mr. or Mrs. A. comes to the courthouse on Monday next I will be there to meet thon.

1884 July 23, C. C. Converse, “A New Pronoun”, in The Critic and Good Literature, number 31, New York, published 1884 August 2, page 55:

I send my files to Dinsmore with a cutting note too subtle for thon to understand (thon is an imbecile, regardless of thon’s protected status).

2020, Charlie Kaufman, Antkind, →ISBN, page 102:

(nonstandard, rare, see usage notes) them (singular). Gender-neutral third-person singular object pronoun, coordinate with gendered pronouns him and her.


minx

PIE word
 *ǵʰmṓ
The origin of the noun is uncertain. The following possible derivations have been suggested:
* A variation of minikin (“(obsolete) young person, especially a young woman; small or insignificant person, thing, or amount”) + a variation of -s (suffix forming hypocoristic nouns (nicknames)) (compare minckins, a variant of minikin).
* From Dutch mens, mensch (“human being, person; (derogatory, informal) woman”) (obsolete), Middle Dutch minsc, minsce, minsch; or from German Low German minsch, minsk, Middle Low German minsche (“hussy, wench”), all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *manniskaz (“human”, adjective), from *mann- (“human being, person; man”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰmṓ (“earthling”), *men- (“to mind; to think; spiritual activity”), or *mon- (“human being; man”)) + *-iskaz (suffix meaning ‘characteristic of, pertaining to’ forming adjectives).
The verb is derived from the noun.

der

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-minx.wav

In an other corner, Mistris Minx, a marchants wife, that will eate no cherries, forsooth, but when they are at twentie shillings a pound, that lookes as simperingly as if she were besmeard, and iets it as gingerly as if she were dancing the canaries, […]

1592, Thomas Nash[e], Pierce Penilesse His Supplication to the Deuill. […], London: […] [John Charlewood for] Richard Ihones, […], →OCLC:

How Huſſie! was there ever ſuch a provoking Minx?

1695, [William] Congreve, Love for Love: A Comedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act II, scene iii, page 20:

Miſs Herbert. So good, Mr. gallant, gay Lothario of ſixty-five, a good morning to you. [Exit. Miſs Herbert. / Old Manly. A ſaucy minx.

1792, Joseph Richardson, The Fugitive: A Comedy. […], London: […] [John] Debrett, […], →OCLC, act IV, scene ii, page 56:

Miss Squeers made no more direct reply than surveying her former friend from top to toe, and elevating her nose in the air with ineffable disdain. But some indistinct allusions to a ‘puss,’ and a ‘minx,’ and a ‘contemptible creature,’ escaped her; and this, together with a severe biting of the lips, great difficulty in swallowing, and very frequent comings and goings of breath, seemed to imply that feelings were swelling in Miss Squeers’s bosom too great for utterance.

1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, “Illustrative of the Convivial Sentiment, that the Best of Friends Must Sometimes Part”, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC, pages 414–415:

"Thy own tongue blister the roof of thy mouth!" cried Mrs. Glendinning, in a half-stifled, whispering scream. "'Tis not for thee, hired one, to rail at my son, though he were Lucifer, simmering in Hell! Mend thy manners, minx!"

1852 July, Herman Melville, “Book XII. Isabel, Mrs. Glendenning, the Portrait, and Lucy.”, in Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, section IV, page 272:

Hopkins says she is a dressed-up little minx who runs after all the young men in the parish; but really, from what I see and hear from other persons, I think she is a good girl enough.

1859–1861, [Thomas Hughes], “The Long Vacation Letter-bag”, in Tom Brown at Oxford: […], part 2nd, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1861, →OCLC, page 105:

Others were pert little minxes, and were amusingly condescending to their friends and relatives; but when it came to the feast all the innocent little airs and graces were left aside, and the saucy tapo enjoyed her pig and yams as naturally as the hungriest boy there.

1895, Marie Fraser, “Tapos and Other ‘Fafines’”, in In Stevenson’s Samoa, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 111:

A widow with a child was at a disadvantage with these pretty little minxes, she thought. But in these exciting days her widowhood and her motherhood weighed less heavily upon her than ever before.

1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter XVIII, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC, part IV, page 317:

Single, and generally on the make, she was alternatively an angel, a devil and a minx.

1988, Barbara Delinsky, Commitments, New York, N.Y., Boston, Mass.: Grand Central Publishing, published October 2012, →ISBN, page 69:

As women glide from their twenties to thirties, Shazzer argues, the balance of power subtly shifts. Even the most outrageous minxes lose their nerve, wrestling with the first twinges of existential angst: fears of dying alone and being found three weeks later half-eaten by an Alsatian.

1996, Helen Fielding, “Wednesday, 4 January”, in Bridget Jones’s Diary, London: Penguin Books, published 1999 (2010 printing), →ISBN:

We're quite a powerful group, us wrinkly teenagers, us pre-menopausal minxes.

1999, Meera Syal, Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee, Black Swan edition, London: Transworld Publishers, published 2015, →ISBN, page 242:

Both girls [in Joseph Haydn's Le pescatrici] reveal themselves as minxes.

2009, Richard Wigmore, “Operas and Dramatic Music”, in The Faber Pocket Guide to Haydn, London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 307:

A flirtatious, impudent, or pert young woman.

кокетка

Well, yet at length the houre came that flattered him with grace, / Who all too haſtie hide him ſelfe to his appointed place. / Arrived there, a pretie minx (directed wel before) / Unto a lodging brought this lord, and locked faſt the dore. / When he was ſafe, awaye ſhe went, for joy Alberto hopt, / But ſee, a chaunge! too late he ſpyde he was in priſon popt. / The windowes made of yron barres, the walles of ſtone and clay, / A bed he found, but farre unfit he thought for Venus play.

1576, George Whetstone, “The Arbour of Vertue, […]”, in The Rocke of Regard, […], London: […] [H. Middleton] for Robert Waley, →OCLC; republished in J[ohn] P[ayne] Collier, editor, The Rocke of Regard, […] (Illustrations of Early English Poetry; vol. 2, no. 2), London: Privately printed, [1867?], →OCLC, pages 164–165:

[W]hat did you meane by that ſame handkercher, you gaue mee euen now? […] this is ſome minxes token, and I muſt take out the worke; there, giue it the hobby horſe, whereſoeuer you had it, I'le take out no worke on't.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 65:

If thou be abſent long, thy wife then thinkes, / Th'art drunke, at eaſe, or with ſome pretty minkes, / 'Tis well with thee, or elſe beloued of ſome, / Whil'ſt ſhee poore ſoule doth fare full ill at home.

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Causes of Iealousie, Who are Most Apt. […]”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 3, member 1, subsection 2, page 469:

They are a couple of alluring wanton Minxes.

1677 (date written), John Dryden, The Kind Keeper; or, Mr. Limberham: A Comedy: […], London: […] R[ichard] Bentley, and M[ary] Magnes, […], published 1680, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 4:

He to his ardent love ſhall win the fair, / From beauty's queen, to her who ſcrubs the ſtair, / From the Kept-miſtreſs, or the Counteſs vain, / Down to the tawdry Minx in Drury Lane.

1760, J. Copywell [pseudonym; William Woty], “Money. A Fragment of an Intended Parody.”, in The Shrubs of Parnassus. Consisting of a Variety of Poetical Essays, Moral and Comic, London: […] J[ohn] Newbery, […], →OCLC, page 142:

For my part, if I understand these sphinxes, / These living riddles called Olympian Gods, / I think they are in love with mortal minxes; / (It would not be the only time by odds;) […]

1864, England’s Bards, 1864; or, The Three Poems which were Awarded the One Hundred Guineas Offered as Prizes in the Advertisement “Ho! For a Shakespeare!” which Appeared about the Time of Shakespeare’s Tercentenary Anniversary, London: Day and Son, […], →OCLC, section I (Pallas Athené and Venus at Breakfast with Juno, in One of Her Apartments), page 12:

There wasn't an Archimandrite of Dane's Island and the townlands nor a minx from the Isle of Woman […] would come next or nigh him, […]

1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited, →OCLC; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, →OCLC, part III, page 496:

Tragically forgot to take drying washing down off rack over Aga and a pair of my very large knickers was perilously close to brushing the top of his hair as he came in. […] I quickly swapped them with a pair of ELDEST's teeny-weeny ones, so he thinks he might be marrying into a family of sex minxes who stay that way well into middle age.

2009, Judith Holder, “January”, in The Secret Diary of a Grumpy Old Woman: AKA A Year in Big Knickers, London: Hachette UK, published 2011, →ISBN:

(derogatory, dated) A promiscuous woman; also, a mistress (“the other woman in an extramarital relationship”) or a prostitute.


minx

The Minx […] frequents the water like the Otter, and very much reſembles it in ſhape and color, but is leſs; will abide longer under the water than the muſk quaſh, muſk rat, or little beaver: […]

1771, Thomas Pennant, quoting John Bartram, “Otter”, in Synopsis of Quadrupeds, Chester, Cheshire: […] J. Monk, →OCLC, page 240:

Many of these birds are destroyed by Weasels and Minxes.

1831, John James Audubon, “The Great Carolina Wren. Troglodytes ludovicianus, Ch. Bonaparte. […]”, in Ornithological Biography, or An Account of the Habits of the Birds of the United States of America; […], Edinburgh: Adam Black, […], →OCLC, page 401:

2d. Carnivora, or flesh eaters. Of these we have […] the New York ermine, or ermine weasel; the mink, or minx otter; the common otter; […]

1847, J. H. Mather, L. P. Brockett, “Zoology. [Class I. Mammalia.]”, in Geography of the State of New York. […], Hartford, Conn.: J. H. Mather & Co. [et al.], →OCLC, page 39:

We next come to the mink or minx otter (Putorius Vison) which is the only animal of the genus mustela inhabiting the northern parts of America that can be said to live in the water, and the name of "fisher" could with much justice be transferred from its present bearer to the mink.

[1876], Charles Henry Eden, chapter VII, in The Home of the Wolverene and Beaver; or, Fur-hunting in the Wilds of Canada, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; New York, N.Y.: Pott, Young & Co., →OCLC, page 153:

There is, however, scarcely any distinction in the other portions of the dress of the sexes [of southeastern Alaskan natives], except that the skin coats or tunics of the women and the facings of the bonnet or hood (worn by both sexes) are more elaborately decorated with minx, otter, or seal fur about the throat, and down the front, than those of the men.

1893 March, John H. Keatley, “Under the Arctic Circle”, in B[enjamin] O[range] Flower, editor, The Arena, volume VII, number XL, Boston, Mass.: Arena Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 491:

obsolete spelling of mink (“any of various semi-aquatic, carnivorous mammals in the Mustelinae subfamily”)..


damsel

damsels (plural)
damoisel (alternative)
damoiselle (alternative)
damosel (alternative)
damozel (alternative)

From Middle English dameisele, from Old French damoisele, from Vulgar Latin *domnicella, a diminutive from Classical Latin domina (“mistress, lady”), from dominus, from *demh₂-. Doublet of demoiselle, doncella, and donzella.


bridezilla

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-bridezilla.wav

(usually humorous) A woman who, in the course of planning her wedding, exercises or attempts to exercise a high degree of control over all major and minor details of the ceremony and reception, and makes unrealistic or outrageous demands.


fag hag

From fag + hag. First use appears c. 1965 in the publication The Guild Dictionary of Homosexual Terms.

Susan "Suki" Eagan, manager of the Boston bar Chaps, describes her own personal odyssey as "local debutante to fag hag to fag bar owner."

1977 August 27, Steve Savage, Susan "Suki" Eagan, “Everything You Wanted to Know About Suki, But Were Too Distracted In Chaps to Ask Her”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 8, page 8:

Becoming a glam fag hag was not about money or privilege. Au contraire. Any working-class girl was eligible. All she had to do was get a job in a fag-rich environment, be it a hair salon or a department store.

2012, Simon Doonan, Gay Men Don't Get Fat, Penguin, →ISBN:

(sometimes derogatory, slang, LGBTQ, vulgar) A woman who enjoys the company of gay men.


granda

My granda would make everything from scratch and it was a wonderful feast of a picky tea. His potatoes deep-fried in batter were amazing.

2017, Sarah Millican, How to be Champion:

(informal, Scotland, Northern England) grandfather


knock up

en-verb

knock up (third-person singular simple present knocks up, present participle knocking up, simple past and past participle knocked up)

knocks up (present singular third-person)
knocking up (participle present)
knocked up (participle past)
knocked up (past)

I guess his summer plans are shot now that he knocked his girlfriend up.

“And how many other girls has he knocked up?” “Would you keep your voice down? Mom's home.” She pressed her hands to her head. “I just don't understand how you could ditch Rowan and get knocked up by Scott, like, right away.”

2015, Jaime Loren, Waiting for April, Pan, →ISBN:

(slang, chiefly US) To impregnate, especially out of wedlock. See knocked up.


nymphomaniac

en-adj

nymphomaniac (comparative more nymphomaniac, superlative most nymphomaniac)

more nymphomaniac (comparative)
most nymphomaniac (superlative)

From nymphomania + -ac; by surface analysis, nympho- + -maniac.

(of a woman) Having an excessive libido.

nymfoman

of woman: having excessive sexual desire


on the rag

From rag as a slang term for a menstrual pad. First use appears c. 1967. See cite below.

She herself had begun menstruation shortly after her eleventh birthday and had gone to the head of the stairs to yell down excitedly: "Hey, Mum, I'm on the rag!"

Harold: How is Sarah? I don't want to jump her while she's on the rag.

(slang, vulgar, idiomatic, derogatory, sometimes euphemistic) Menstruating.


menarche

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-menarche.wav

First attested 1900, from German Menarche, formed from meno- + -arche.

How old is she? Nine? Ten? The menarche is not far off – a hint of a bosom, poor child.

The most potent and indeed dangerous of all menstrual blood was the menarche, the first day's flow of the first menstruation of a virgin girl.

1978, Benjamin Walker, Encyclopedia of Metaphysical Medicine, Routledge, page 252:

Initiation is imagined, but the initiate is not the young girl in menarche, about to be wed to the moon, but a young man about to become a great hunter.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 102:

The onset of menstruation; a girl's first period.


menstruate

en-verb

menstruate (third-person singular simple present menstruates, present participle menstruating, simple past and past participle menstruated)

menstruates (present singular third-person)
menstruating (participle present)
menstruated (participle past)
menstruated (past)
menstrate (alternative)

From menstruum + -ate (verb-forming suffix); sense 2 (“to undergo menstruation”) is possibly a back-formation of menstruation.

(transitive, obsolete, rare) To stain with or as if with menses.

A woman may have every quality or attribute of marriageableness who menstruates irregularly, or rarely, or even who has never menstruated at all.

1884, The Medical Age, volume 2, page 358:

Among the ancient Iranians, the puerpera, like the menstruating woman, was regarded as "unclean".

1885, Hermann Heinrich Ploss, Max Bartels, Paul Bartels, translated by Eric John Dingwall, Woman: an historical, gynæcological and anthropological compendium, page 150:

Fortunately, there’s early signs of a “wokelash” from institutions that won’t cower to this nonsense. When staff at publisher Hachette threatened to down tools because they regarded JK Rowling as a toxic transphobe for a tweet mocking “people” who menstruate instead of “women”, management pushed back saying they couldn’t refuse to work on a book because they disagree with the author’s views.

2021 November 20, Angela Mollard, “Gen Z cancelling musical Grease is disappointing”, in The Daily Telegraph, Surrey Hills, N.S.W:

(intransitive) To undergo menstruation, to have a period.


menstruate

From menstruum + -ate (adjective-forming usffix).


menstruation

en-noun

menstruation (countable and uncountable, plural menstruations)

menstruations (plural)
menstration (alternative)

/ˌmɛnstɹʊˈeɪʃən/

From menstruum + -ation, modelled after Late Latin menstruatio. The word is cognate with French menstruation, Spanish menstruación, displaced Old English mōnaþblōd (literally “monthblood”)).

inh

An instance of menstruation, the part of each month during which a fertile woman menstruates.


busty

en-adj

busty (comparative bustier, superlative bustiest)

bustier (comparative)
bustiest (superlative)

I could see a busty blonde at the end of the boardwalk.

ثَدْيَاء

having large breasts (note some translations are in feminine gender only)


demimonde

demimondes (plural)
demi-monde (alternative)

Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione

Borrowed from French demi-monde (literally “half-world”), from demi (“half”) + monde (“world; people”); possibly coined by French author and playwright Alexandre Dumas fils as the title of a comedic play, Le Demi Monde (1855): see the 1864 quotation.

refn

From the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, New York, USA.

bor

A most remarkable instance of this was afforded in the play of Camille by the performance of the supper-scene. The stage in this scene is supposed to represent a supper-room, enlivened by the presence of a party of young Parisians, more gay, indeed, than respectable, but still Parisians, and Parisians of the demimonde, which, of the two halves that go to make up the whole of the monde, preserves the hemisphere of manners while it throws away the hemisphere of decorum.

1857 May, “The World of New York”, in Putnam’s Monthly Magazine of American Literature, Science, and Art, volume IX, number LIII, New York, N.Y.: Miller & Company, […]; London: Sampson Low, Son & Co., →OCLC, page 560, column 1:

To give a good and solid education to the gentle sex would tend to double the army of progress, to draw closer the domestic relations, and to annihilate that extra-conjugal society (the demi[-]monde of [Alexandre] Dumas the younger) which is now so very prosperous.

1864 July, Edmond About, “Art. VII.—Edmond About on Progress. Le Progrès. Par Edmond About. Paris, 1864.”, in The Westminster Review, American edition, volume LXXXII, number CLXI, New York, N.Y.: Published by Leonard Scott & Co., […], →OCLC, page 74, column 1:

Paris society borrows fashions from the demi-monde, and the demi-monde borrows manners from the extravagant princesses, countesses, and viscountesses. All Parie has been stirred with the Sardanapalian entertainment, which a leader of the demi-monde gave on the eve of Lent to the best male society in the Empire. The ladies were all unquestionably from young [Alexandre] Dumas' panier à quinze sous; but their manners and their toilettes were, we are told, all that could be desired.

1867, W[illiam] Blanchard Jerrod, “Society under the Second Empire”, in On the Boulevards; or Memorable Men and Things Drawn on the Spot, 1853–1866. […], volume II, Philadelphia, Pa.: J. B. Lippincott & Co.; London: W[illiam] H[oughton] Allen & Co., […], →OCLC, page 14:

Skating Rinks are chiefly patronised by members of the demi[-]monde.

1878, K[arl] Baedeker, “Paris. Preliminary Information.”, in Paris and Its Environs: […], 6th revised and augmented edition, Leipzig: Karl Baedeker; London: Dulau and Co., […], →OCLC, section 17 (Concerts and Balls), page 57:

Racing is confined almost exclusively to the upper and middle classes in Hungary, though it is always attended by numbers of the demi[-]monde.

1897, H. Ellen Browning, chapter III, in A Girl’s Wanderings in Hungary, 2nd edition, London, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 56:

This is the last straw. In your infatuation for this man—a man who is notorious for his excesses, a man your father would not have allowed to so much as mention your name—you have reflected the demi-monde rather than the circles in which you have presumably grown up.

1920 May 27, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “The Offshore Pirate”, in Flappers and Philosophers, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published September 1920, →OCLC, part I, page 6:

The ballet offered another way up for daughters, maybe not through marriage, but through training for a world that didn't need marriage to be glorious—the Petersburg demimonde with its parties, restaurans, hothouse flowers in witner, chinovniki, and officers entertaining mistresses and setting them up with children in apartments. The demimonde was an alternate, semi-hidden social world, to which ballet was firmly linked.

2013, Elizabeth Kendall, “Georgi”, in Balanchine and the Lost Muse: Revolution and the Making of a Choreographer, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 38:

(chiefly historical (19th-century France)) A class of women maintained by wealthy protectors; female courtesans or prostitutes as a group.


tuck

en-verb

tuck (third-person singular simple present tucks, present participle tucking, simple past and past participle tucked)

tucks (present singular third-person)
tucking (participle present)
tucked (participle past)
tucked (past)

From Middle English tuken, touken (“to torment, to stretch (cloth)”), from Old English tūcian (“to torment, vex”) and Middle Dutch tucken (“to tuck”), both from Proto-Germanic *teuh-, *teug- (“to draw, pull”) (compare also *tukkōną), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull”). Akin to Old High German zucchen (“to snatch, tug”), zuchôn (“to jerk”), German Low German tuken (“to tug, pluck, grab and pull towards”), Old English tēon (“to draw, pull, train”). Doublet of touch.

cog

(transitive) To pull or gather up (an item of fabric).

to tuck a dress

To sew folds; to make a tuck or tucks in.

Honey, have you tucked today? We don’t wanna see anything nasty down there.

(LGBTQ, of a drag queen, trans woman, etc.) To conceal one’s penis and testicles, as with a gaff or by fastening them down with adhesive tape.


menopause

en-noun

menopause (countable and uncountable, plural menopauses)

From French ménopause, from Latin menopausis, from Ancient Greek μήν (mḗn, “month”) + παῦσις (paûsis, “pause”). Equivalent to meno- + -pause.

The final menstrual period of a woman after which ovulation no longer occurs.


contraceptive

en-adj

contraceptive (comparative more contraceptive, superlative most contraceptive)

more contraceptive (comparative)
most contraceptive (superlative)

Coined in the 20th century from contra- + conceptive; compare the related contraception.

She was careful to take her contraceptive pill at the same time every day.

This has led to the selection of 4-guanidinobenzoates with either acetamenophen or ethylparaben as the phenol moiety for clinical evaluation, because they are orders of magnitude more contraceptive than nonoxynol-9 and less irritating to the vagina.

1994, P. F. A. Van Look, Gregorio Pérez-Palacios, World Health Organization, Contraceptive Research and Development, 1984-1994: The Road from Mexico City to Cairo and Beyond:

That acts to prevent conception as a result of sexual intercourse.


contraceptive

Putting a pig's bladder over one's penis before intercourse is not a good contraceptive.

The document covers the following family planning methods: combined oral contraceptives (COCs), combined injectable contraceptives (CICs), progestogen-only pills (POPs), depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), norethisterone enantate (NET-EN), levonorgestrel implants, emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs), copper-bearing interuterine devices, levonorgestrel-releasing interuterine devices (LNG IUDs), fertility awareness-based methods, and sterilization.

2004, Selected Practice Recommendations for Contraceptive Use, 2nd edition, World Health Organization:

A mechanism or means by which conception as a result of sexual intercourse can be prevented or made less likely.

супрацьзача́ткавы сро́дак

means by which impregnating a woman can be prevented


pill

* From Middle English pille (also pillem), a borrowing from Middle Low German pille or Middle Dutch pille (whence Dutch pil), probably from Latin pila, pilula.
* (persuade or convince): Generalized from red pill.

Jane went on the pill when she left for college.

She got pregnant one month after going off the pill.

I'm tearing down your brooder house / 'Cause now I've got the pill

1975, “The Pill”, in Back to the Country, performed by Loretta Lynn:

Many specialists are requesting that this vitamin be included in all contraceptive pills, as women on the pill have a tendency to be depressed.

1986, Jurriaan Plesman, Getting Off the Hook: Treatment of Drug Addiction and Social Disorders Through Body and Mind:

(informal, uncountable, definite, i.e. used with "the") Contraceptive medication, usually in the form of a pill to be taken by a woman; an oral contraceptive pill.

pastilla anticoncepcional / contraceptiva / contraconceptiva


vestal virgin

From Latin; virgines Vestales referred to the priestesses in charge of the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta in Rome.

(literally) A virgin dedicated to the service of the goddess Vesta.


wet nurse

wet nurses (plural)
wet-nurse (alternative)
wetnurse (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-wet nurse.wav

Coordinate term: dry nurse

A woman hired to suckle another woman's child.

乳母

うば, uba, おんば, onba, ちうば, chiuba, ちおも, chiomo, にゅうぼ, nyūbo, まま, mama, めのと, menoto


widow

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From Middle English widwe, from Old English widuwe, from Proto-West Germanic *widuwā, from Proto-Germanic *widuwǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂, possibly from *h₁weydʰh₁-, *widʰ- (“to separate, split, cleave, divide”), whence also wood from Old English widu, wudu.
Cognates include German Witwe, Dutch weduwe, Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍅𐍉 (widuwō), Old Irish fedb, Latin vidua, Old Church Slavonic въдова (vŭdova), Sanskrit विधवा (vidhavā) and Persian بیوه (bive, bêva), Middle Persian wēwag, Avestan viðavā- "widow" .

Any venomous spider of the genus Latrodectus (called "widows" because of the practice of sexual cannibalism observed among many of these species).


widower

From Middle English widwer, equivalent to widow + -er.

Tears of the widower, when he sees
A late-lost form that sleep reveals,
And moves his doubtful arms, and feels
Her place is empty, fall like these; […]

1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XIII, page 20:

What happens to the lovers of people with AIDS? How do they experience the passage from lover to caregiver to "widower"?

1988 April 2, Lori Kenschaft, “Film on lovers of PWAs in works”, in Gay Community News, page 6:

A man whose spouse has died (and who has not remarried); a man in relation to his late spouse; masculine of widow. [from 14th c.]

wewenaar

a man whose spouse has died and who has not remarried


schoolgirl

Coordinate term: schoolboy

That he married the wrong sister (as is sometimes suggested) is scarcely a feasible explanation, for Mary was hardly more than a schoolgirl when Dickens first came into the Hogarth family.

1975, John Greaves, Dickens at Doughty Street, page 33:

Jessica expected to find her mother in her office, talking to Norm. Lydia had been on the phone a lot lately, off whispering in a corner, like a schoolgirl with a secret crush.

2006, Porter Shreve, Drives Like a Dream:

“Grotesque” is full of schoolgirls in long socks but blanchingly free of cuteness, a combination we might call Uh-Oh Kitty.

2007 April 15, Sophie Harrison, “Memoirs of a Geisha’s Sister”, in The New York Times:


schoolboy

Coordinate term: schoolgirl


butterface

butterfaces (plural)
butter face (alternative)

Ellipsis of various forms of everything looks good but her face, great body but her face, among other phrases, under the influence of butter (perhaps also with connotation of “plainness”, grease, etc.) and buttface. Compare summerteeth.

you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire

I can’t even look at her, she’s such a butterface.

Her face wasn't quite as pretty as he had hoped — Earl, the other mechanic back at his father's place called this kind of girl a Butterface...

2010, Laura Lippman, I'd Know You Anywhere, New York: HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 76:

(slang, derogatory) A person who has an attractive body but an unattractive face.

背影殺手 /背影杀手

attractive person with unattractive face


womanhood

en-noun

womanhood (countable and uncountable, plural womanhoods)

womanhoods (plural)
womanhead (alternative)
womonhood (alternative)
womynhood (alternative)
wommonhood (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-womanhood.wav

From Middle English womanhoode, wommanhod, whomanhode, variants of wommanhede. By surface analysis, woman + -hood.

же́нственост

qualities considered typical for a woman

Easing down to her panties slowly as if investigating a carrier of a dangerous plague, both hands were quivering like it was contagious while feeling extraordinarily alarmed, he commenced to inspect her womanhood.

2007, Mark A. Cherpak, Circle of Fear: Uncharted Worlds, page 264:

(euphemistic) The female genitalia, especially the vulva.


working girl

From working + girl. First use appears c. 1620, in the publications of Thomas Shelton.

It was still September / When your daddy was quite surprised / To find you with the working girls / In the county jail

1973, Donald Fagen, Walter Becker (lyrics and music), “My Old School”, in Countdown to Ecstasy, performed by Steely Dan:

(idiomatic, euphemistic) A female prostitute.


froe

Abbreviation of obsolete frower, from froward (“turned away”), referring to the orientation of the blade, at right angles to the handle. From late 16th century.

Patch shingles on the barn roof: do we have a maul and froe?

1997, Charles Frazier, chapter 4, in Cold Mountain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 88:

A cleaving tool for splitting cask staves and shingles from a block of wood.


froe

1630, Michael Drayton, Nymphal IV, [from The Muses Elizium], 1793, The Works of the British Poets, Volume 3: Drayton, Carew & Suckling, page 618,
Like to thoſe raging frantic froes / For Bacchus' feaſts prepared;

(obsolete) A dirty woman; a slattern; a frow.


bleeding

bleeding (countable and uncountable, plural bleedings)

Notwithstanding the employ of general and local bleeding, blisters, &c., the patient died on the fourth day after entrance.

1833, R. J. Bertin, translated by Charles W. Chauncy, Treatise on the Diseases of the Heart, and Great Vessels, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blnachard, page 24:


morning-after pill

morning-after pill (plural morning-after pills)

Dr. Morris and his colleagues have reported on one experimental compound designed specifically to be a morning-after pill.

1967 October 7, “Estrogens' Double Life”, in Science News, volume 92, number 15, →JSTOR, page 343:

These policy efforts confuse the public into thinking that the morning-after pill, which is simply a super-dose of the regular pill, is the same as mifepristone, the abortion pill.

2010 October 12, Faith Agostinone-Wilson, Marxism and Education Beyond Identity: Sexuality and Schooling, Palgrave Macmillan, page 172:

Even after a girl has sex, it's not too late to prevent her from dropping an egg. That's what the morning-after pill does.

2013 March 5, Bronwen Pardes, Doing It Right: Making Smart, Safe, and Satisfying Choices About Sex, →ISBN:

A federal judge on Friday ordered that the most common morning-after pill be made available over the counter for all ages, instead of requiring a prescription for girls 16 and younger.

2013 April 15, Pam Belluck, “Judge Strikes Down Age Limits on Morning-After Pill”, in The New York Times:

A contraceptive in the form of a pill taken shortly after sexual intercourse.


vasectomy

From vas (short for vas deferens) + -ectomy (“surgery involving the excision or removal of a body part”).

af

short for <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">vas deferens</i>

Coordinate term: tubal ligation (analogous procedure for female anatomy)

The experimental vasectomy operation was performed under sodium pentobarbital (50 mg/kg body weight, i.p) anesthesia via a lower midabdominal incision as described elsewhere.

2015 July 10, “Abnormal Accumulation of Collagen Type I Due to the Loss of Discoidin Domain Receptor 2 (Ddr2) Promotes Testicular Interstitial Dysfunction”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:

In fact, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., so many men sign up for vasectomies during March Madness that appointments reach “max capacity,” said Dr. Tobias S. Kohler, a urologist and men’s health expert at the medical center who has observed this phenomenon ever since he was an attending physician a decade ago.

2019 March 28, Christina Caron, “Why Don’t More American Men Get Vasectomies?”, in The New York Times:

Middle-aged, married fathers make up the bulk of those who have gotten vasectomies, with less than two percent of unmarried men relying on vasectomy for contraception, according to one analysis of data between 2002 and 2015 by the Department of Health and Human Services.

2022 August 12, Alisha Haridasani Gupta, “‘Snip Snip Hooray’: Vasectomies Among the Young and Child-Free May Be Rising”, in The New York Times:

(surgery) The surgical incision of all or part of the vas deferens as a means of male sterilization.


spinster

From Middle English spynnestere (“woman who spins fibre”), from c. 1350; equivalent to spin + -ster. The semantic development is from a historical notion of unmarried women spinning thread for a living.

inh

One who spins (puts a spin on) a political media story so as to give something a favorable or advantageous appearance; a spin doctor, spin merchant or spinmeister.


viscount

viscounts (plural)
V (alternative)
Vis. (alternative)
Visc. (alternative)
Visct (alternative)
Vte (alternative)

From Anglo-Norman viscounte, from Medieval Latin vicecomes, from Latin vice + comes. Equivalent to vice- + count. Doublet of vicecomes and vicomte.

(entomology) Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Tanaecia. Other butterflies in this genus are called earls and counts.


umbilical cord

(anatomy) The flexible structure connecting a foetus with the placenta; it transports nourishment to the foetus and removes waste.


shemale

shemales (plural)
she-male (alternative)

(offensive, proscribed, especially in pornography) A male-to-female transsexual or transgender person; a trans woman.

人妖

a male-to-female transsexual or transgender person

sukupuolenvaihtaja

has no specific word; may use "transgender person"

шиме́йл

anglicism, indeclinable if used as feminine

She-male garter snakes exploit the amorous attentions of other males to warm up.

2001, R. Shine, B. Phillips, H. Waye, M. LeMaster, R. T. Mason, Benefits of female mimicry in snakes, in Nature (414, 267)

(biology, nonstandard, see usage notes) A male animal which displays female traits or behaviors; for example, a male reptile which gives off female pheromones.


male-to-female

(LGBTQ) Transitioning or having transitioned (in gender identity or presentation, physically, etc) from being male to being female.


female-to-male

the female-to-male ratio is 3-to-5

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see female, to, male.

(LGBTQ) Transitioning or having transitioned (in gender identity or presentation, physically, etc) from being female to being male.

(electronics, of an adapter) That changes a female end (usually a socket) of a connection into a male one (with pins, usually a plug).


female-to-male

The lack of a crossgender peer group is a gaping reality for most female-to-males. While all transvestites/transsexuals are a hidden minority, the female-to-males are an even more hidden minority within that minority.

1980, Louis Sullivan, Information for the Female-to-male:

A female-to-male transsexual or transgender person; a trans man.


sister-wife

sister-wives (plural)
sister wife (alternative)

Coordinate term: brother-husband

My Grecians shall victorious prove, By me led on to War, the Sister-Wife of Jove.

1743, trans. Philip Francis, “Odes”, in Horace, volume III, iii, page 64:

Ptolemy VII […] married Cleopatra, the sister-wife of his predecessor.

1853, Henry N. Humphreys, The coin collector's manual, page 118:

Anat as sister-wife of Baal, Isis as mother of Horos and sister-wife of Osiris, Hera as sister-wife of Zeus

1974, Joseph Fontenrose, Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins, page 257:

A woman who is simultaneously sister and wife to her spouse.

zuster-vrouw

a woman who is simultaneously sister and wife to her spouse

Enmities between sister-wives will [be,] from their having known each other too intimately all their lives, more unmannerly than where they are strangers to each other

1853, quoted in Robert Cox, Sabbath Laws and Sabbath Duties, page 194:

In a polygamous marriage, a woman who is simultaneously the sister and co-wife of another.

Yüeh-niang and her sister-wives, all dressed in formal gowns, came out from inside to greet them and ushered them into the rear reception hall

2006, Xiaoxiaosheng, trans. David Tod Roy, The plum in the golden vase, or, Chin P'ing Mei, page 21:

The concept of 'sisterhood' was popularly applied to the official organizations for Mormon women, and Mormon co-wives were and are still known as 'sister-wives'

2008, Miriam Koktvedgaard Zeitzen, Polygamy: A Cross-Cultural Analysis, page 97:


marquess

marquesses (plural)
marquis (alternative)
marquesse (alternative)

See marquis for etymology. Note also that marquess is very unusual in the English language in that it ends in -ess but is a masculine term. The title is granted only to males (the female equivalent is marchioness).

A title of nobility for a man ranking beneath a duke and above an earl.

Anne Boleyn was created w:Marquess of Pembroke in 1532


transman

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-transman.wav

Coordinate term: transwoman

Like many transmen, he chose not to remove his female reproductive organs.

2008 June 22, Guy Trebay, “He’s Pregnant. You’re Speechless.”, in New York Times:

(often derogatory, offensive) Alternative spelling of trans man.


transwoman

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-transwoman.wav

Coordinate term: transman

She had been attracted to Sharon from the time they met, but had not felt comfortable with the idea of dating a transwoman.

2007, Reid Vanderburgh, Transition and Beyond: Observations on Gender Identity:

A transwoman is thus required to fashion her own body as a blank in order to gain a document that is not itself a blank; the document will not speak her sex until her body fails to.

2010, Gayle Salamon, Assuming a Body: Transgender and Rhetorics of Materiality:

Not only do people harass and attack transwomen for being who they are: transwomen also face scrutiny from both ciswomen and cismen over “what” they are.

2010, Holly Kearl, Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 57:

Conversely, if you are a lesbian-identified transwoman who was legally married to a woman prior to transition, some people may claim your union is now illegal because it is presently a same-sex marriage.

2012, Nicholas M. Teich, Transgender 101: A Simple Guide to a Complex Issue:

“There’s going to be a lot of people for whom this is going to mean nothing, but for the few it does impact, it means the world,” said Facebook software engineer Brielle Harrison, who worked on the project and is herself undergoing gender transformation, from male to female. On Thursday, while watchdogging the software for any problems, she said she was also changing her Facebook identity from Female to TransWoman.
“All too often transgender people like myself and other gender nonconforming people are given this binary option, do you want to be male or female? What is your gender? And it’s kind of disheartening because none of those let us tell others who we really are,” she said. “This really changes that, and for the first time I get to go to the site and specify to all the people I know what my gender is.”

2014 February 13, Martha Mendoza, quoting Brielle Harrison, “Facebook offers new gender options for users”, in AP News, archived from the original on 2023-06-09:

(often derogatory, offensive) Alternative spelling of trans woman.


cowgirl

A woman who tends free-range cattle, especially in the American West.


muliebrity

en-noun

muliebrity (countable and uncountable, plural muliebrities)

muliebrities (plural)
muliebritie (alternative)

From Late Latin muliebritās (“womanhood; womanliness”), from Latin muliēbris (“feminine, womanly”) + -tās (suffix forming nouns indicating a state of being); or from muliēbris + -ity; compare Middle French muliebrité. Muliēbris is derived from mulier (“woman; wife”) (from mollior (“softer; milder; weaker”), comparative form of mollis (“soft; mild, tender; weak”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mel- (“soft; tender; weak”)) + -brīs (noun suffix denoting a person).

der

(physiology) The state of puberty in a female.


lad culture

This is frequently traced back to the birth of lad culture in the mid-90s, which itself tends now to be characterised as a reaction against “feminism gone too far”.

2023 September 18, Zoe Williams, “The nasty noughties: Russell Brand and the era of sadistic tabloid misogyny”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK) A subculture which arose in the United Kingdom in the 1990s, centered around traditional working-class male attitudes and interests, often in rejection of the perceived strictures of feminism or the concept of the New Man.


episiotomy

/ˌɛpəsaɪˈɒtəmiː/

From episio- + -tomy (“surgical incision”), from Ancient Greek ἐπίσιον (epísion, “pubic region”) + τέμνω (témnō, “I cut”)).

The following eight hours were the worst of my life that haven't ended in an episiotomy.

(medicine) A surgical incision through the perineum made to enlarge the vagina and assist childbirth.


multiparous

It is not denied there have been bicipitous Serpents with the head at each extream, for an example hereof we finde in Aristotle, and of the like form in Aldrovandus we meet with the Icon of a Lizzard; which double formations do often happen unto multiparous generations, more especially that of Serpents […]

1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:

Producing several offspring at one time.


agony aunt

Coordinate term: agony uncle

You should write in to the agony aunt; she'll sort it out for you.

Pandora has just left my bedroom. I am just about devastated with frustration. I can't go on like this. I have written to Aunt Clara, the Agony Aunt.

1984, Sue Townsend, The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, Methuen, →ISBN, page 20:

The big difference between agony aunts then and today is that now we have the internet to answer those tricky problems about how to eat an avocado pear (a lot of letters in the 70s were avocado-related)[…]

2021 June 20, Philippa Perry, “Ask Philippa: meet the Observer’s brilliant new agony aunt”, in The Observer:

(informal, British, Ireland) A writer of an advice column in a newspaper or other periodical.


Uncle Sam

/ˌʌŋkl̩ ˈsæm/

/ˌʌŋkəl ˈsæm/

From uncle + Sam (diminutive of the male name Samuel), probably based on the initialism U.S. of the United States. While folk etymology suggests that the term was named after Samuel Wilson (1766–1854), a meat packer from Troy, New York, who supplied the United States Army with canned meat during the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom, the Oxford English Dictionary notes there is no evidence that this is the case.

compound

Uncle Sam needs brave men and women to enlist in the Army.

(colloquial, originally US) A personification of the United States federal government or (rare) citizens.

James Montgomery Flagg
Oxford English Dictionary
Samuel Wilson
United States Army
War of 1812

اَلْعَمّ سَام

personification of the United States federal government or citizens


maidservant

maidservants (plural)
maid servant (alternative)
maid-servant (alternative)

From Middle English maide servant; equivalent to maid + servant.

Sixe dayes thou ſhalt labour, and doe all thy worke. / But the ſeuenth day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou ſhalt not doe any worke, thou, nor thy ſonne, nor thy daughter, nor thy man ſeruant, nor thy maid ſeruant, nor thine oxe, nor thine aſſe, nor any of thy cattel, nor thy ſtranger that is within thy gates, that thy man ſeruant and thy maid ſeruant may reſt as well as thou.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 5:13–14, column 2:

"A great people were they. They conquered till none were left to conquer, and then they dwelt at ease within their rocky mountain walls, with their man servants and their maid servants, their minstrels, their sculptors, and their concubines, and traded and quarrelled, and ate and hunted and slept and made merry till their time came."

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

But a man who holds so tightly to what he calls his rights over what he calls his debts will hold tightly also to what he calls his rights over her whom he calls his wife. No sir smile neighbour shall covet his ox or his wife or his manservant or his maidservant or his jackass. / —Or his jennyass, Buck Mulligan antiphoned.

1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:


cis-

From the Latin preposition cis (“on this side of”). The earliest known sexuality-related use of the prefix in any language was in a 1914 German-language book on sexology. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest use of the prefix in the context of gender in English dates from 1994.

quote-book

Lexikon Des Gesamten Sexuallebens

1914, Ernst Burchard, Lexikon Des Gesamten Sexuallebens, Berlin, BV047570799, page 32:
Cisvestitismus, die Neigung, die Kleidung einer anderen Altersstufe, Volks- oder Berufsklasse des gleichen Geschlechts zum Zwecke sexueller Entspannung anzulegen, dem Transvestitismus verwandt (s. Verkleidungstrieb).
Cisvestism, the tendency to don the clothes of a different age group, ethnic group, or profession of the same sex for the purpose of sexual relaxation, related to transvestism (see disguise instinct).

cis- + diazene → cis-diazene

(physical chemistry) Forming names of chemical compounds in which two atoms or groups are situated on the same side of some plane of symmetry passing through the compound.

cis- + gender → cisgender

cis- + sexual → cissexual

cis- + sexism → cissexism

cis- + normativity → cisnormativity

(by extension) Being, or pertaining to being, cis.

Not trans.
Being, or pertaining to being, cis.


trans-

cis-

antonym(s) of “chemistry, other side/beyond, gender”

Borrowed from Latin trāns (“across, on the far side, beyond”).

bor

transmasculine, transfeminist, transphobia

For quotations using this term, see Citations:trans-.

Transgender or transsexual, or pertaining to those who are transgender or transsexual.


loop

From Middle English loupe (“noose, loop”), earlier lowp-knot (“loop-knot”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse hlaup (“a run”), used in the sense of a "running knot", from hlaupa (“to leap”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną (“to leap, run”). Compare Swedish löp-knut (“loop-knot”), Danish løb-knude (“a running knot”), Danish løb (“a course”). More at leap. The verb is derived from the noun.

der

(biochemistry) A flexible region in a protein's secondary structure.


machismo

en-noun

machismo (usually uncountable, plural machismos)

First attested 1940, from American Spanish machismo, from Spanish macho (“male”), + suffix -ismo (“-ism”).

(informal) An excessive masculine pride.

characteristic, behavior or particularity of Male; Macheza.

PSP [Puerto Rican Socialist Party] spokesperson Victor Lopez-Tosado told GCN: "[…] The party is mainly organized in a Latin American country where oppression, as a result of machismo, etc., to homosexuals is very common."

1979 April 7, Rebecca Chase, “PSP Supports Gay Rights”, in Gay Community News, page 1:

The Dominican Republic is traditionally regarded as a patriarchal island brimming with machismo — where, indeed, a recent U.S. ambassador was publicly vilified for bringing his husband to his posting. It was, and is, an unlikely place to find an enclave of acceptance. So what explains this unique tolerance?

2017, Sarah A. Topol, “Sons and Daughters”, in Harper's Magazine:

(Latin American) male chauvinism, misogyny


breech birth

A birth in which the baby comes through the birth canal posterior (buttocks), feet, or knees first, instead of the more usual position of headfirst.

臀位分娩

birth in which the fetus comes feet or knees first


androgynous

en-adj

androgynous (comparative more androgynous, superlative most androgynous)

more androgynous (comparative)
most androgynous (superlative)
androgenous (alternative)

From Latin androgynus (“man-woman, hermaphrodite”), from Ancient Greek ἀνδρόγῠνος (andrógŭnos), from ἀνήρ (anḗr, “man”) + γῠνή (gŭnḗ, “woman”) + -ος (-os, “-ous”, adjectival suffix).

af

<i class="Latn mention" lang="en">-ous</i>

Possessing the sex organs of both sexes.


androphobia

In the case of androphobia, a reaction can occur when exposed to men or masculinity, in anticipation of such experiences, or even hearing words related to the male sex.

2021 July 25, Jordan Davidson, “Androphobia (fear of men): what is it, causes, treatment”, in Ro:


midwife

From Middle English midwif, corresponding to mid (“with”) + wif (“woman, wife, female”). It appears not to be entirely clear whether the original understanding was “with-woman” in the sense of “attending/assisting woman”, or “they who are with the woman” (namely the mother).

促成者

person who assists in bringing something about

A hundred years ago, a midwife would bring the baby into the world - going to a hospital to deliver a baby was either impossible or unheard of.

The senior midwife confirmed that […] occasionally a multigravid woman could feel little more than slight abdominal discomfort.

2009, Jennifer Worth, Farewell to the East End, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, page 235:

Despite Richard's efforts to midwive his own narrative of legitimacy, the source of this legendary one cannot be controlled because it has moved from the mouths of nurses, midwives and gossips into the public domain.

2017, Caroline Bicks, Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare’s England, page 123:

(obstetrics) A person, usually a woman, who is trained to assist women in childbirth, but who is not a physician.


quean

queans (plural)
quine (alternative)
quene (alternative)
queane (alternative)

From Middle English quene (“young, robust woman”), from Old English cwene (“woman, female serf”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwenā, from Proto-Germanic *kwenǭ (“woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷḗn (“woman”).
Cognate with Dutch kween (“a barren woman, a barren cow”), Low German quene (“barren cow, heifer”), German Kone (“wife”), Swedish kvinna (“woman”), Icelandic kona (“woman”), Gothic 𐌵𐌹𐌽𐍉 (qinō, “woman”), 𐌵𐌴𐌽𐍃 (qēns, “wife”). More at queen.

cog

Forbye the two queans there was the son, John Gordon, as coarse a devil as you'd meet, he'd already had two-three queans in trouble and him but barely eighteen years old.

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 30:

(Scotland) A young woman, a girl; a daughter.


STP

en-noun

STP (countable and uncountable, plural STPs)

(especially LGBTQ) Initialism of stand-to-pee.


pop feminism

So pop feminism distorts feminism by depoliticizing it and burying its complexities, and in so diminished a state it has no power to vanquish the male privilege that women experience in their everyday lives.

1996, Zillah R. Eisenstein, Hatreds: Racialized and Sexualized Conflicts in the 21st Century:

Cinematherapy combines a strategic mix of pop feminism (which presumes female independence and “girl power”) and stereotypes, then, as a primary method of appealing to female audiences.

2006, Barbara Klinger, Beyond the Multiplex: Cinema, New Technologies, and the Home:

[…] strongly associated with a 1990s/early 2000s cultural moment of “pop-feminism,” marked by a high-profile, culturally pervasive, quasi-feminist rhetoric. This rhetoric relied heavily on female celebrities who embraced the “bad girl” stereotype […]

2011, Su Holmes, Diane Negra, In the Limelight and Under the Microscope:

(sometimes derogatory) A populist, non-academic approach to feminism, suggesting that women can attain equality with men through a positive, go-getting attitude, without much need to organize politically or to examine or change cultural institutions and biases.


ladette

ladettes (plural)
laddette (alternative)

It could be argued that the rise of the socially conscious model reflects a very 2017 archetype: the “woke” young woman, who looks set to define femininity this decade in the same way that the lager-swilling ladette did in the 90s. It is also symptomatic of a broader cultural “awokening” that has reached the stuffiest institutions; even the royal family has recently relaxed its upper lip.

2017 May 15, Hannah Marriott, “Woke models: how activism became fashion's latest must-have”, in The Guardian, London, page 9:

So the rise in drinking seems to centre on gen X women, or, to give us our proper title, ladettes.

2021 September 22, Zoe Williams, “Generation X are heavy, risky drinkers. Will anything ever persuade us to stop?”, in The Guardian:

(informal) A young woman who behaves in a laddish manner, namely being boisterous and loud and drinking to excess.


stillborn

From English still + born. First attested in 1597.

This, gentlemen, is a list of the joint-stock companies created last year. . . . Of these some were stillborn, but the majority hold the market.

1859, Charles Reade, chapter 11, in Love Me Little, Love Me Long:

His lips framed themselves to whistle the first bars of a popular song, but the sound died stillborn.

1915, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 18, in The Highgrader:

(figuratively, by extension) Ignored, without influence, or unsuccessful from the outset; abortive.

doodgeboren

ignored, without influence, unsuccessful, abortive


hunk

Probably borrowed from West Flemish hunke (“hunk; chunk”), of obscure origin. Probably from an earlier *humke, *humpke, a diminutive related to Dutch homp (“hunk; lump”), English hump, equivalent to hump + -kin. The sense of an attractive man is recorded in Australian slang in 1941, in jive talk in 1945.

The unfortunate thing about calling the season seven finale “The Dragon And The Wolf” is you can’t even reference it by name without picturing Daenerys Targaryen’s long-awaited hook-up with Jon Snow, her strapping hunk of an ally and also her nephew.

2017 August 27, Brandon Nowalk, “Game Of Thrones slows down for the longest, and best, episode of the season (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club:

Diana’s most recent romantic adventure at that time was with the sturdy hunk Will Carling, captain of the England rugby team, whom she had met in 1995 working out at the Chelsea Harbor Club gym.

April 5 2022, Tina Brown, “How Princess Diana’s Dance With the Media Impacted William and Harry”, in Vanity Fair:

(informal) An attractive man, especially one who is muscular.


transsexuality

transsexuality (countable and uncountable, plural transsexualities)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-transsexuality.wav

From trans- + sexuality or transsexual + -ity.

The state, condition, or properties of being transsexual.

ৰূপান্তৰকামিতা

the state, condition, or properties of being transsexual


sex reassignment surgery

sex reassignment surgery (countable and uncountable, plural sex reassignment surgeries)

sex reassignment surgeries (plural)
SRS (abbreviation)

(transgender, sometimes proscribed) Surgical procedure that alters a person's sexual characteristics to conform to one's identified gender, particularly for transgender people, or to conform to societal standards for intersex people to present in a dyadic fashion, the latter often done without consent.

sukuelinten korjausleikkaus

surgical procedure that changes a person's sex characteristics so that they conform to a standard


babushka

babushkas (plural)
babushki (plural)
babooshka (alternative)
baboushka (alternative)

Borrowed from Russian ба́бушка (bábuška, “grandmother, granny”), diminutive of ба́ба (bába, “old woman”).

bor

Coordinate term: dedushka

Yet, much as I loved to listen to it, standing there in the heat of all the lighted candles and dressed in my heavy shuba and felt boots, I invariably, halfway through the service, would begin to feel an intolerable pain across my shoulders which would spread across my back, gradually getting worse, until in the end I was forced to go to the back of the church and find a corner on a bench especially placed there for all the old babushkas and dedushkas who were also unable to bear the strain of standing throughout the whole service.

1984, Eugenie Fraser, “Before the Storm”, in The House by the Dvina: A Russian Childhood, Mainstream Publishing, →ISBN, pages 126–127:

An old woman, especially one of Eastern European descent.

(by association) A stereotypical, Eastern European peasant grandmother-type figure.

“Say hello to old Stanley,” he called as she pattered down the steps into the street, flung a babushka over her license plate and screeched away down Telegraph.

1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 5, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 79:

The crowd falls silent, momentarily stunned, while a heavyset woman in a babushka pushes her way through, broadcasting the news […].

1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 78:

(Northern US, Canada) A traditional floral headscarf worn by an Eastern European woman, tied under the chin.


scrape

en-noun

scrape (countable and uncountable, plural scrapes)

From Middle English scrapen, from Old Norse skrapa (“to scrape, scratch”) and Old English scrapian (“to scrape, scratch”), both from Proto-Germanic *skrapōną, *skrepaną (“to scrape, scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *skrebʰ- (“to engrave”).
Cognate with Dutch schrapen (“to scrape”), schrappen (“to strike through; to cancel; to scrap”), schrabben (“to scratch”), German schrappen (“to scrape”), Danish skrabe (“to scrape”), Icelandic skrapa (“to scrape”), Walloon screper (“to scrape”), Latin scribō (“dig with a pen, draw, write”).

cog

1972, in U.S. Senate Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Abuse of psychiatry for political repression in the Soviet Union. Hearing, Ninety-second Congress, second session, United States Government Printing Office, page 127,
It’s quite possible, in view of the diagnosis ‘danger of miscarriage’, that they might drag me off, give me a scrape and then say that the miscarriage began itself.

In expert hands abortion nowadays is almost the same as having a scrape (D & C) and due to improved techniques such as suction termination, and improved lighter anaesthetic, most women feel no worse than having a tooth out.

1980, John Cobb, Babyshock: A Mother’s First Five Years, Hutchinson, page 232:

The loss is significant to the woman and will be stated as such by her. For her it is not “nothing,” “just a scrape,” or “not a life.” It is the beginning of a baby. Years later, she may recall it not just as a miscarriage but also as a baby that was lost.

1985, Beverley Raphael, The Anatomy of Bereavement: a handbook for the caring professions, Routledge,, →ISBN, page 236:

17.Have you had a scrape or curettage recently?

1999, David Jenkins, Listening to Gynaecological Patients\ Problems, Springer,, →ISBN, page 16:

(British, slang) A D and C or abortion; or, a miscarriage.


grandam

grandams (plural)
grandame (alternative)
granddam (alternative)

From Middle English graundame, from Old French grant dame. Doublet of grande dame.


Homecoming Queen

en-noun

Homecoming Queen (plural Homecoming Queens)

(US) In colleges and high schools, a young lady chosen by her peers to reign over the traditional activities associated with the Homecoming football game.


scumbag

From scum + bag; first use appears c. 1967.

“A scumbag,” Sonny repeated. “Rubber. A pro-phy-natic. You know what I mean, don't you?”


phallocentric

en-adj

phallocentric (comparative more phallocentric, superlative most phallocentric)

more phallocentric (comparative)
most phallocentric (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-phallocentric.wav

His shame at what she might on the other hand perceive as his slimy phallocentric conduct toward her made it easier for him to avoid her, as well.

1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 25:

Focused on the phallus, especially as a symbol of male dominance; characterised by male attitudes, focused on men.

fal·locèntric

Focus on the phallus or on a male point of view.


mutha

Dialectal variant of mother
* Geordie dialect variant of mother.
* Ebonics variant of mother.

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(Geordie, African-American Vernacular) Pronunciation spelling of mother.