endosex

[prettygoodword]

endosex (EN-doh-seks) - adj., not intersex, that is having sex characteristics that are considered typically male or typically female.


Just as having the word transgender made it useful to coin cisgender and homosexual made it useful to coin hetereosexual, having intersex made it useful to coin endosex. Coined in 1999 in German by Heike Bödeker from Ancient Greek root éndon, inner + -sex, on the pattern of intersex (which interestingly was also originally coined in German), and first used in English by Bödeker in 2000. As with also recent ceterosexual, there are proposed alternative terms, dyadic and perisex, but as far as I can tell endsex is most common among intersex people (at least in the US).

---L.

Comments

[full_metal_ox]

And note that intersex isn’t always to do with the structure of your plumbing: some people classify hormonal conditions such as PCOS under the intersex spectrum.

These are all immensely useful words, allowing a better taxonomy than “you weirdos” versus “just normal” (“neurotypical”, in another area of variance, is another.)

Let me know if you ever happen upon an antonym for “synaesthesia” (i.e., having a neatly compartmentalized neurosensory range); I’m recalling a frustrating conversation I once had on the bus regarding toy xylophones colored in rainbow sequences, and desperately wanting a prefix for “-splaining.”)

[prettygoodword]

Most intersex people I've talked with agree that PCOS-and-similar are also intersex conditions, but also say it's up to each person with such a condition whether to identify as intersex -- and the same of, say, hypospadias.

I meant to note neurotypical as another example this type of word but forgot -- I blame being focused on last Friday's hinge towards this. My bad. And no, I've yet to see a word for non-synesthetic, though it would indeed be Highly Useful. Hmph.