Antedating of "Transvestite"

[Laurence Horn]

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
>
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