she-male

[George Thompson]

This is in the OED, starting with an undated 19th C passage.  The two
passages below are firmly dated, the earlier from 1842, and show an
istated not stated by the OED nor shown in its quotations: an
offensively masculine woman.  In the 1842 passage, a cross-dresser; in
the 1866 passage, an intellectual.

        That infamous strumpet Hal Grandy . . . thinks nothing of Promenading
Broadway in open day in men’s apparel. . . .  ***  We would give the
world to meet her in the street in any other appearance than that of a
she-male.
        The Whip, July 30, 1842, p. 2, col. 4

        Blue Stockings, Bloomers, and strong-minded she-males
Thomas J. Dimsdale, The Vigilantes of Montana. . . .  Virginia City, M.
T.: Montana Post Press, 1866, p. 69

OED (V 13) she-male (U.S. colloq. and dial.) = FEMALE n.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
 18.. in B. A. Botkin Treas. Amer. Folklore (1944) I. 8 Davy Crockett's
hand would be sure to shake if his iron was pointed within a hundred
mile of a *shemale. 1917 S. LEWIS Job xv. 246 Course you high-strung
virgin kind of shemales take some time to learn to get over your
choosey, finicky ways. 1941 E. P. O'DONNELL Great Big Doorstep 125 How
can that one inside be cruel to dogs like that? If they were she-males
always dropping pups, I wouldn't say.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

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