EPICENE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Epicene

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adjective

Epicene adj., n.

Common to both sexes; a term applied, in grammar, to such nouns as have but one form of gender, either the masculine or feminine, to indicate animals of both sexes; as boys, bos, for the ox and cow; sometimes applied to eunuchs and hermaphrodites.

Fig.: Sexless; neither one thing nor the other. "The literary prigs epicene." "He represented an epicene species, neither churchman nor layman."

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Etymology of 'Epicene'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Epicene" Quotes from Famous Books

... legitimate limits of right reason, and in common with that of some ridiculed philosopher of Roundhead times, is the prudent saying, "Whoever's king, I'll be subject!"—ay, and for the masculine I place the epicene. While, however, in sober practice of right subordination, and under existing circumstances of just rule, we gladly would amplify the maxim, (as in courtesy, gallantry, loyalty, and honest kind feeling strongly bound,) still in mere speculation, and ...

— The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper • Martin Farquhar Tupper

... But this epicene state of enjoyment was not long to last. A fresh-coloured native, with a prodigious breadth of face, only to be surpassed by his prodigious breadth of shoulders, approached, and addressed us in a brogue so strong, that it would, like the boatswain's grog, have floated a marlin-spike, ...

— Rattlin the Reefer • Edward Howard

Words linked to "Epicene" : androgynous, sissy, bisexual person, bisexual, effeminate, intersex, epicene person, unmanful, hermaphrodite, sissyish, gynandromorph, sissified, unmanly, androgyne