Antedating of "Transvestite"
Laurence Horn
laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sun Dec 22 05:41:18 UTC 2013
On Dec 21, 2013, at 10:52 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> At 12/21/2013 10:17 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>> transvestite (OED 1922)
>>
>> 1911 _Current Literature_ Nov. 550 (JSTOR) There are some who ...
>> point to the degeneracy of Rome under Heliogabalus, an emperor who
>> preferred to wear the habiliments of the opposite sex. Recently Dr.
>> Magnus Hirschfeld, the psychopathic authority, devoted an entire
>> book to the question of persons similarly
>> inclined, whom he calls "transvestites."
>
> I love it. Heliogabalus
Now alas mostly known (if at all) for his appearance in my late colleague John Hollander's memorializing of him in a double dactyl:
Higgledy-piggledy
Heliogabalus
Lurched through the Forum, his
Bottom a-wag,
Vainly pretending to
Gynaecological
Problems beneath his Im-
perial drag.
LH
> and habiliments. And the "psychopathic authority".
>
> Joel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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