Thomas @tfb@functional.cafe

This is a kind of wordplay that I've been interested in for years. Here is a newly rewritten version of something I posted on Mastodon a long time ago, about constructing queer jargon from archaic English, plus some examples of historically real archaic English words for trans and intersex folk.

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I made up these LGBTQ identity words show what it would be like if the words were built only from native Germanic English roots, instead of from Latin or Greek loan-words:

Some constructed words for sexual orientations:

sexual orientation = drawing or faining (fain is an archaic English word for desire; see https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fain )
asexual = undrawn or unfaining
bisexual = twain-drawn or twain-fain
gay (in the sense of homosexual) = same-drawn or same-fain
gay (strictly in the sense of men loving men) = wer-drawn or wer-fain (wer or were is an archaic English word for a specifically male human, whereas "man" was a gender-neutral word for a human; see https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wer#English )
heterosexual = other-fain, else-fain, or else-drawn
lesbian = lass-fain, lass-drawn, lady-fain, lady-drawn, or wif-fain (wif is a Middle English word for woman; see https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wif#Middle_English )

Some words about gender:

gender = kind
assigned gender = allotted kind
gender dysphoria = kind-woe
transgender = cross-kind
transition = crossing
cisgender = same-side-kind or stay-kind

Some words about nonbinary gender:

gender binary = kind twofoldness
binary genders = twain kinds
nonbinary = untwain
genderfluid = kind-flow
genderqueer = kind-queer
agender or genderless = kindless
bigender = twi-kind
neutral gender = fair-kind
neutrois = fair-three

Building words from native Germanic English roots is a linguistic experiment that is helpful when you find yourself overwhelmed with what we think of as "long words," which are really words of Greek or Latin origin. Wikipedia gives several examples of writings that attempted to do that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_purism_in_English
This wiki has a lot of resources for if you want to try it too: https://anglish.fandom.com/wiki/Main_leaf

Even if words have the same number of syllables as a native English word, they can feel longer, more difficult, more intellectual, unnatural, and/or more modern because they don't perfectly fit in with the rest of English.

And now some real, historical, not-made-up, archaic English words for gender and sex variant people, since naturally we did exist in early English history:

bæddel, or bædling. This is a historically real Old English word for effeminate men and intersex people. During that era, the word was-- or came to be used as-- an insult, so much so that it might possibly be the origin of the word "bad." (The Merriam-Webster Dictionary acknowledges the possibility, but says "bad" more likely came from elsewhere.) Since 2014, there has been a movement of trans women taking up the word "bæddel" for themselves, because the word shows that trans women have always existed, and that sexism against trans-femininity has been a big part of culture for centuries.
https://tonidorsay.tumblr.com/post/81656480254/what-in-the-7-hells-of-westeros-is-a-baeddel
https://medium.com/@gfgfgf/lets-talk-about-b%C3%A6ddelism-67050054b8f0
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bad

scrat, or scritta. From a historically real Middle English word, another form of the modern word "scratch." The form "scrat" survives in some modern dialects. This has been used in family records and legal documents for intersex people. People breeding livestock also used it for animals born with intersex conditions, too. One of the English nicknames for the Devil, "Old Scratch," has to do with demonizing pre-Christian forest spirits that shared this name. (They were sort of like fauns or elves.) Other Germanic languages have cognates for scrats, including the connection between nature spirits and human intersex conditions. That may reflect pre-Christian attitudes where gender and sex variance were seen as sacred. This aligns with a common historical pattern of sacred sex and gender variance being demonized, as described in Leslie Feinberg's "Transgender Warriors."
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scrat
https://www.etymonline.com/word/Scratch#etymonline_v_22976
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skrat
https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/08/the-two-first-folk-lore-columns/

wæpen-wifestre, or wæpned-wifestre. This is a historically real Anglo-Saxon word. Wif meant woman. Estre was a feminine suffix. Wæpen (weapon) or wæpned (weaponed) were equally likely to mean having a sword or a penis. (Please tell old England that using the same word for both swords and penises reflects a tasteless attitude about sex.) This word was used for gender non-conforming people of that time. It could have been used for a woman warrior who wields a sword, a trans woman, an intersex person, or nearly anybody who was thought to have both male and female characteristics.
Here is where it appears in a dictionary from 1838: https://books.google.com/books?id=YIALAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA435&lpg=PA435&dq=weapon+wifestre
This talks about it in context with Beowulf, in regard to Grendel's mother, who was a monster or a woman warrior: https://books.google.com/books?id=MsGDel51uIsC&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=

The "trans" in "transgender" is Latin for "across to the other side." "Gender" means "kind," and it's related to the word "genre."

In Latin, the antonym of "trans" is "cis," meaning "staying on the same side." That's how we get the antonym "cisgender," meaning someone who is not transgender.

In the archaic phrase "to go hither and thither," the word "hither" means "here, on the near side," and "thither" means "there, on the distant side."

Maybe if you were writing a queer fantasy story with old-timey language, transgender and cisgender could be called thitherkind and hitherkind?

@levels_check chanter, drones, and 1 regulator, I guess?

current bagpipe levels are 69%

(69%) ■■■■■■□□□□

Trying to understand what a translinear circuit is... First impression: like most analog circuits, it's magic and wizardry. . #electronics

Even the first panel of today's SMBC would have been enough
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/math-2

Just out of curiosity. Can anyone recommend any tech video channels made by more diverse sets of people? With focus on e.g. Linux, *BSD, hardware, privacy-focused FLOSS phones/tablets? Also I'm interested in social aspects of computation & networking.

I'm sick of watching tech videos made by tech bros.