Etymology
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she-male (n.)

by 1860, U.S. colloquial, "a female, a woman," from she + male.

Davy Crockett's hand would be sure to shake if his iron was pointed within a hundred miles of a shemale. ["Treasury of American Folklore"]

This became obsolete, and by 1972 it had been recoined (disparagingly) for "masculine lesbian." The sense of "transsexual male" seems to date from c. 1984.

updated on August 13, 2022

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