transsexual

Definition

Of a person, having changed, or being in the process of changing, physical sex by undergoing medical treatment, such as hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and/or optionally sex reassignment surgery (SRS).

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *terh₂-der. Proto-Italic *trānts Latin trāns Latin trans-bor. English trans- Proto-Indo-European *sek-der. Proto-Indo-European *séksusder. Proto-Italic *seksus Latin sexus Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Latin sexuālisbor. English sexual English transsexual From trans- + sexual. Introduced to English along with transsexualism by David Oliver Cauldwell in 1949, based on the German word Transsexualismus coined by Magnus Hirschfeld in 1923. Popularized in the mid 1960s, around the same time that transgender was coined; transgender had become an umbrella term and largely but not entirely displaced transsexual by the 1990s.

Example Sentences

• ""'I'm in the process of going through surgery, a transsexual operation.'" She [Sharon Davis] continued, "He [my partner] said that made no difference to him. And when he said that, just like that, I just stopped crying. I was so happy." They've been together ever since."
• "Stormy […] […] returned from Morocco, where she'd had transsexual surgery."
• "Before the Iranian Revolution, transsexual treatments were tacitly allowed, but Molkara wanted a ruling that provided clerical legitimacy. After the Revolution, she met with Khomeini and got a fatwa or ruling that transsexual transition was permitted."