Meanings
- uncountablelifestyleThe pretence of being the opposite sex, especially that by a man of being a woman; transvestism.
2013, C. N. Armstrong, 12: Transvestism, D. Robertson Smith, William M. Davidson (editors), Symposium on Nuclear Sex, Elsevier (Butterworth-Heinemann), page 88, Homosexuals do not as a rule want to change their sex and identity. This is the fundamental anomaly in eonism.
2 more examples
The chief of these intermediate sexual anomalies are: (1) physical hermaphroditism in its various stages; (2) gynandromorphism, or eunuchoidism, in which men possess characters resembling those of males who have been early castrated and women possess similarly masculine characters; (3) sexo-esthetic inversion, or Eonism (Hirschfeld's transvestism or cross-dressing), in which, outside the specifically sexual emotions, men possess the tastes of women and women those of men.
1927, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6)Ellis seems, however, to regard this 'less common but more complete' type as embodying the essence of eonism, and he objected to the term transvestism because it focused attention solely on the element of cross-dressing.
2006, Richard Ekins, Dave King, The Transgender Phenomenon, SAGE Publishing, page 63
Origin
Coined in 1920 by the British physician and sexologist Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) after Chevalier d'Eon (1728–1810), a French diplomat, spy and soldier who presented as male for 49 years, then as a female for 33. Ellis had previously used the term sexo-aesthetic inversion.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
French éonisme
- éonismepretence of being the opposite sex — see also transvestism
German Eonismus, Transgender
- Eonismuspretence of being the opposite sex — see also transvestism
- Transgenderpretence of being the opposite sex — see also transvestism
Italian eonismo
- eonismopretence of being the opposite sex — see also transvestism
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
eonism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eonism
“eonism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eonism. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “eonism,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eonism.
Source: eonism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.