transvestite
/tɹænzˈvɛs.taɪt/ noun
Forms transvestites
- noun (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. “Even though Steven used to dress up in his sister's clothes, it still came as a surprise he ended up as a transvestite.”
- noun (clinical psychology, psychiatry, pathology) 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.
- noun (zoology, dated) An animal that engages in sexual mimicry.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin trāns + vestītus, form of vestiō (“to clothe, to 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).
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “transvestite”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details