Cisgender

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Cisgender

Postby Dr. Goodword » Fri Jan 08, 2016 12:09 am

• cisgender •

Pronunciation: sis-jen-dêr • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective, Noun

Meaning: Designating a person whose gender identity corresponds with his or her actual physical gender.

Notes: What is the antonym of transgender? Transgender refers to a person whose identity does not correspond with his or her actual physical gender. Cisgender refers to all others. Not enough time has transpired to see what clever writers will do with this new word; we have only one adjective, cisgendered, to work with.

In Play: A number of books and films is emerging today about the problems caused by transgender: "The Danish Girl is a film about a transgender man and his cisgender friends." We still face problems of cisgender people understanding transgenders.

Word History: This very new word from the late 1990s is based on two components: cis "this side of" and gender. The prefix trans- in Latin meant "across"; the opposite was cis "this side of". Cis ultimately comes from the PIE pronominal root ko- "this", which underlies English he, his, and here. It is also behind the cetera in etcetera. This word came from ke-etero "again, a second time". Gender comes ultimately from PIE gen- "give birth to", which is why we see it in genre, generate, and gene. In English we would expect the [g] to become [k] and it did in the words kin, king, and kind—all words referring to families. (Gratitude is due to Sue Gold of the Westtown School for her discovery of this new Good Word, which is only about 20 years old.)
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Slava
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Re: Cisgender

Postby Slava » Sat Feb 13, 2021 8:54 pm

Other words with this prefix are cisalpine and cisatlantic.
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Re: Cisgender

Postby tkowal » Sun Feb 14, 2021 12:41 pm

There is also Cisjordan (this side of the Jordan river); the usual term is West Bank.

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Re: Cisgender

Postby Slava » Sun Feb 14, 2021 2:47 pm

That's a new one to me.
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Re: Cisgender

Postby tkowal » Mon Feb 15, 2021 10:27 am

That's a new one to me.

It's used mostly in Romance languages like Cisjordanie in French and Cisjordânia in Portuguese.

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Re: Cisgender

Postby Slava » Mon Feb 15, 2021 2:03 pm

When they say it, are they talking about France and Portugal being west of the Jordan; west of the Jordan in general; the west bank of the Jordan; or the West Bank? Or is it contextual?
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Re: Cisgender

Postby tkowal » Tue Feb 16, 2021 4:17 am

It's about the West Bank.

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Re: Cisgender

Postby Philip Hudson » Wed Feb 17, 2021 12:22 am

I choose not to discuss this topic.
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Re: Cisgender

Postby damoge » Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:57 am

Philip, provocative response.
Care to enlarge upon why you thought it necessary?
Last edited by damoge on Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Cisgender

Postby damoge » Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:57 am

Philip, provocative response.
Care to enlarge upon why you thought it necessary?
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Re: Cisgender

Postby Philip Hudson » Wed Feb 17, 2021 5:25 pm

I have what would be called "outdated attitudes" about the whole LBTBQXYZ discussion. I believe I know the truth, but I don't care to argue it.
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Re: Cisgender

Postby damoge » Wed Feb 17, 2021 7:33 pm

No need to argue it or defend it, just wondered why it was not enough to just let it drop?
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Re: Cisgender

Postby Philip Hudson » Thu Feb 18, 2021 7:27 pm

damoge: You are probably right.
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