核心畫面

Picture one thing that holds both sides at once: the male and the female sitting together in a single body, a single face, a single name. Nothing has been left out and nothing has been mixed into a third thing; two things we usually keep in separate boxes are simply in the same place. Because both are there, the eye or the ear has no way to sort it into one box, and that is what every use of the word comes back to.

可以想成:兩邊同時都在同一個東西身上。男的那一半和女的那一半,擠在同一個身體、同一張臉、或同一個名字裡。不是少了哪一更多收起可以想成:兩邊同時都在同一個東西身上。男的那一半和女的那一半,擠在同一個身體、同一張臉、或同一個名字裡。不是少了哪一邊,也不是變成第三種,而是兩邊都在。正因為兩邊都在,看的人、聽的人就沒辦法把它歸到哪一格。這個畫面從最實在的「身上真的有兩套器官」開始,往外延伸到「外表看不出男女」,再到「名字和聲音聽不出男女」。

From the word’s history

From Latin androgynus, from Ancient Greek anēr (man) plus gunē (woman) plus the adjective ending -os/-ous. The word is literally man-woman, so the picture of two sides in one thing is built into its parts.

來自拉丁文 androgynus,再往前是古希臘文 anēr(男人)加 gunē(女人),加上形容詞字尾。字面就是「男—女」,所以「兩邊在同一個東西身上」這個畫面,本來就寫在字的零件裡。

Wiktionary entry supplied in this packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:896216401:19389)

Two branches

身體上真的兩套都有

這一家最貼近字面:兩邊不是看起來像,而是實際存在於同一個身體裡。

adjective · C1

Having both the male and the female sex parts in one body. This is the biology use, said about plants and about animals such as worms and snails.

雌雄同體的

看不出、聽不出是男是女

同樣是「兩邊都在」,只是舞台從身體換到外表與特徵:線索兩邊都指,於是誰也分不出來。

adjective · C1

Looking both male and female at the same time, so that you cannot easily tell from a person's face, hair, body or clothes whether they are a man or a woman.

中性外表的