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[–] varialus 0 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago 

In Latin there are three options. Male, female, and neither. Our word masculine come from their almost identical word that means male. Likewise our word feminine comes from their almost identical word meaning female. Our word neuter comes from the identically spelled Latin word meaning neither, or in other words, not either of two options. If somebody is truly ambiguous, perhaps having lots of chimera mixed male and female DNA or perhaps having clear chromosomal sex, but messed up hormones during gestation, we don't need to go creating custom sexes; if they're not clearly male, and they're not clearly female, then they're neither. Is that so hard? Masculine is not their archetype, feminine is not their archetype, neuter, that's their archetype. Everyone who is neither male nor female, is neuter.

[–] [deleted] 0 points 8 points (+8|-0) ago 

[Deleted]

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[–] european ago 

I wonder if due to environmental or other reasons there are increases in people who may become hormonally confused so to speak whilst not qualifying as hermaphrodite but showing opposite sex characteristics so as to be more mixed sexually.

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[–] varialus ago  (edited ago)

Ah yes, I'm familiar with that word, but I wasn't sure of its origins, so I looked it up just now. It's also Latin meaning having attributes of both sexes, which is of course the same as its current meaning in English. So my original comment is mistaken, hermaphrodite is the correct word. In Latin neuter isn't really used for biological sex, but rather for grammar. But since their equivalent words for male and female are the same words that they use in grammar and biological sex, it makes sense by extension, what neuter would mean in relationship to biological sex. In any case, they didn't have gender, so it's much clearer regardless. If somebody dresses, acts, and looks like the opposite gender, it ain't so hard to just say that.