Etymology

transvestite

trans·ves·tite
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Today it means: A person who sometimes wears clothes traditionally worn by and associated with the opposite sex; typically a male who cross-dresses occasionally by habit or personal choice. Full definition →

Latin trāns ← German Transvestitismus
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The story

  1. German · borrowed fromTransvestitismus
  2. Latin · borrowed fromtrāns
  3. English todaytransvestite

Borrowed from Latin trāns + vestītus, form of vestiō (“to clothe, to dress”) (as in English vestment, vest). Literally, a "cross-dresser". From transvestitism, from German Transvestitismus, coined in 1910 by Magnus Hirschfeld (the practice itself is much older).

Words from the same roots

Latintrāns all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.