Is "transgender" a bad word?

[sandra-leigh]

Transgender merely means across (or crossing) gender.

Unfortunately, members try to redefine it to be a synonym of transsexual or, as with Sejd, confuse "trans" with "transit" (from which we get transition).

The "trans" of "transsexual" and "transgender" and "transition" is exactly the same root, the origin of which means "motion across" which (many centuries ago) was adapted to indicate changing of state; the root was (as is typical in Latin) also used in adjective forms such as "that which has crossed over" or "that which is in an alternate state" (the 'trans' vs 'cis' of chemistry). Thus, transgender does refer to (A) the process of changing gender; as well as (B) that which has changed gender (relative to an arbitrary norm). Some root as "transfer", "transmit", "transaction", and other words.

The difference between "transgender" and "transsexual" is rooted in the difference between "gender" and "sex". At the time that the term "transsexual" was invented, the difference was not well understood, and the one term, at the time it was invented, covered both meanings. As the understanding of 'gender' as not being identical to 'sex' evolved, the barely-older term 'transgender' was emphasized by some, intended to convey a different nuance than 'transsexual' typically conveyed -- and the process of pushing away from 'transsexual' served also to shade the nuance of 'transsexual' further away from the original shared meaning. "transgender" appeared in 1965, "transsexual" appeared in 1966, when "transgender" was not often used yet (not until its 1969 adoption by Virginia Prince.)

The word gender has been used since the 14th century as a grammatical term, referring to classes of noun designated as masculine, feminine, or neuter in some languages. The sense ‘the state of being male or female’ has also been used since the 14th century, but this did not become common until the mid 20th century. Although the words gender and sex both have the sense ‘the state of being male or female’, they are typically used in slightly different ways: sex tends to refer to biological differences, while gender refers to cultural or social ones.

Notice "tends to" and "both have the sense" and "did not become common until the mid 20th century". One should, IMHO, not chide people for "refusing to acknowledge" shades of meaning that they are likely unaware of... especially not without having displayed understanding that there is substantial overlap between the terms. Do we say that people "refuse to acknowledge" the difference between "pants" and "trousers" ??

There are other subtle differences between "transsexual" and "transgender" in English. The "al" adjective ending turns out to be relatively strong indication of "adjective" in English, that resists co-opting to other parts of speech without modification of the word. Consider, for example, "transit", which is most commonly a simple present tense verb, and yet can also be used as an adjective ("Transit Stop") or pseudo-noun ("Rapid Transit"); "al", as an ending "calls out for" modification when the part of speech is changed, as in as adding "ize" to form a verb from "sexual". But the "er" ending of "transgender", here intended as indicating an adjective, also happens to be a present-tense verb form, such as in "render unto Caeser". Thus, "transgender" is capable of being used without modification as a verb. Now were these differences in adaptability to be used unchanged as different parts of speech intentional?? I would doubt it.

"Transsexual" does have meaning within a specialized lexicon that is not quite the same as its use outside that context. None-the-less the different contexts exist and should be acknowledged. There is, by way of analogy, not much benefit in railing at people for referring to a "tomato" as being a "vegetable" (which it is in US law, but in botany it is a fruit.)