In the 18th century, the Swedish government made coffee and its paraphernalia (including cups and dishes) illegal for its supposed ties to rebellious sentiment.
EPICENE
effeminate, emasculate, epicene, cissy, sissified, sissyish, sissy
(adjective) having unsuitable feminine qualities
bisexual, epicene
(adjective) having an ambiguous sexual identity
hermaphrodite, intersex, gynandromorph, androgyne, epicene, epicene person
(noun) one having both male and female sexual characteristics and organs; at birth an unambiguous assignment of male or female cannot be made
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Adjective
epicene (not comparable)
(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.).
(linguistics) Of or relating to nouns or pronouns in any language that have a single form for male and female referents.
Synonym: common
(by extension) Suitable for use regardless of sex; unisex.
(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.
Synonyms: gynandromorphic, gynandrous
(by extension) Indeterminate; mixed.
(by extension, usually, pejorative) Of a man: effeminate.
Noun
epicene (plural epicenes)
(linguistics) An epicene word; preceded by the: the epicene words of a language as a class.
(biology and figuratively) An epicene person, whether biologically asexual, androgynous, hermaphrodite, or intersex; an androgyne, a hermaphrodite. [from 17th c.]
(by extension) A transsexual; also, a transvestite.
(by extension, usually, pejorative) An effeminate man.
Notes
Source: Wiktionary
Ep"i*cene, a. & n. Etym: [L. epicoenus, Gr. épicène.]
1. Common to both sexes; -- a term applied, in grammar, to such nouns as have but one form of gender, either the masculine or feminine, to indicate animals of both sexes; as bos, for the ox and cow; sometimes applied to eunuchs and hermaphrodites.
2. Fig.: Sexless; neither one thing nor the other. The literary prigs epicene. Prof. Wilson. He represented an epicene species, neither churchman nor layman. J. A. Symonds.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
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Word of the Day
3 May 2025
DESIRABLE
(adjective) worth having or seeking or achieving; “a desirable job”; “computer with many desirable features”; “a desirable outcome”
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