▪ I. androgyne, n.
(ˈændrədʒɪn)
[a. Fr. androgyne (14th c.), ad. L. androgyn-us, a. Gr. ἀνδρόγυνος male and female in one, f. ἀνδρο- male + γυνή woman, female. Sometimes used in 17th c. in the L. form androgynus and (erron.) androgyna.]
1. A being uniting the physical characters of both sexes; a hermaphrodite.
| 1552 Huloet, Androgine, whiche bene people of both kyndes, both man and woman. 1601 Holland Pliny (1634) I. 157 Children of both sexes, whom wee call Hermophrodites. In old time they were knowne by the name of Androgyni. 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. 316 As if Adam had been Androgyna, or one double Person..consisting of both Sexes. 1795 T. Maurice Hindostan I. i. i. 66 The fabulous tales of the Androgynes..warring against the gods. |
† 2. An effeminate man; a eunuch. Obs. rare.
| 1587 J. Harmar Beza's Serm. Canticles 173 (L.) These vile and stinking androgynes, that is to say, these men-women, with their curled locks. 1706 Phillips, Androgynus..a Scrat or Will Jill, an effeminate Fellow. 1742 Bailey, Androgyne, an Hermaphrodite, or one..that is castrated and effeminate. |
3. Bot. An androgynous plant.
| 1785 Howard Cycl., Androgyna, in botany, plants which bear on the same root male and female flowers. 1837 Whewell Hist. Induct. Sc. xvii. iv. §2 Zaluzian, a botanist who lived at the end of the 15th century, says that the greater part of the species of plants are androgynes. |
▪ II. androgyne, a.
(ˈændrəʊdʒaɪn)
[f. the n.]
= androgynous a. Also absol.
| 1848 Tait's Mag. XV. 703/2 The planets being androgyne, like plants, copulent avec eux-memes and with the other planets. 1958 J. G. Bennett Subud viii. 164 The force of sex..reunites the separated parts to produce the androgyne fourth gradation of the human essence. 1962 Listener 8 Mar. 415/2 The symbolists' fascination with the unnatural in Byzantium—in a taste for the androgyne and the perverse. |