transvestite

Meaning

1. (dated) A person who sometimes wears clothes traditionally worn by and associated with the opposite sex; typically a male who cross-dresses occasionally by habit or personal choice.
2. A person, typically a heterosexual male, who compulsively seeks and derives paraphilic sexual arousal from cross-dressing, especially if the urges and behavior cause the patient distress or social impairment.
3. (dated) An animal that engages in sexual mimicry.

Synonyms

cross-dresser

effeminate

transvestic

homosexual

queer

gay

crossdresser

tranny

berdache

hermaphrodite

Translations

travesti

Transvestit

travestiet

travesti

travestito

travesti

τραβεστί

travestido

travestí

transvestit

travesti

transformista

travestista

المتخنّث

Pronounced as (IPA)

/tɹænzˈvɛstaɪt/

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin trāns + vestītus, form of vestiō (“I clothe, I dress”) (as in English vestment, vest). Literally, a "cross-dresser". From transvestitism, from German Transvestitismus, coined in 1910 by Magnus Hirschfeld (the practice itself is much older).