man-woman
a. A hermaphrodite. b. nonce-use. One who combines the virtues of both sexes. c. A mannish woman.
| 1587 Golding De Mornay xxvi. 458 Concerning the creation of Man, the ægyptians say hee was created both Male and female. Herevpon Plato gathereth that he was a Man-woman or Herkinalson [Fr. Hermaphrodite]. 1736 Fielding Pasquin ii. i, We shall see Fairbelly, the strange man-woman. 1889 Tennyson On one who affected an effeminate manner, But, friend, man-woman is not woman-man. 1894 Idler Sept. 194 That stage of progress has been passed, and, as an outcome, we have the ‘Emancipated Woman’, or ‘Man-Woman’. 1920 D. Lindsay Voy. Arcturus xviii. 240 ‘What do you call men-women?’ ‘Persons of mixed sex, like yourself.’ 1975 P. G. Winslow Death of Angel iv. 109 The new man-woman, emerging from the chaos that is matter. |
Hence man-womanly a., having the characteristics of both sexes.
| 1929 V. Woolf Room of one's Own 148 It would be well to test what one meant by man-womanly. |