Berdache
Pronunciation
- RP IPA: /bəˈdaʃ/
- GenAm IPA: /bəɹˈdæʃ/
Origin
From French bardache, from Italian bardascia, perhaps from Arabic بردج (bardaj, "slave"). Compare bardash.
Full definition of berdache
Noun
- (anthropology) Among Native Americans, a person who identifies with any of a variety of gender identities which are not exclusively those of their biological sex; a transgender person. from the 1890s; peaked in commonness in the 1990s
- 2005, Michael J Horswell, Decolonizing the Sodomite, University of Texas 2006, page 20:Male berdache have been documented in nearly 150 North American societies, while female berdache (females who take on the lifeways of males) appear in half as many groups.
Usage notes
Considered offensive by many Native American communities because of its pejorative and non-American etymology, berdache began to fall out of use in the 1990s; two-spirit and various tribe-specific terms (wergern, etc) are now used instead.