berdache
UK/bəˈdæʃ//bɚˈdæʃ/
berdache noun: among Native Americans, a person who identifies with any of a variety of gender identities which are not exclusively those of their biological sex; a transgender person.
Noun
berdache (plural berdaches)
- Among Native Americans, a person who identifies with any of a variety of gender identities which are not exclusively those of their biological sex; a transgender person.
- These culturally bound assumptions have bedevilled the entire anthropological literature on the berdache in Native American cultures, and it is because of this that I have followed the lead of Angelino and Shedd when referring to the phenomenon of the berdache-transgenderal, for as Fitzgerald...1980, Kenneth E. Read, “Observations on the Current State of Anthropological Research on Homosexual Behavior”, in Other Voices: The Style of a Male Homosexual Tavern, Novato, Cali.: Chandler & Sharp...
- Gender is the sociocultural designation of biobehavioral and psychosocial qualities of the sexes; for example, woman (female), man (male), other(s) (e.g., berdaches²). Notions of gender are culturally specific and depend on the ways in which cultures define and differentiate human (and other)...1989, Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Christine Roberts, “Sex, Sexuality, Gender, and Gender Variance”, in Sandra Morgen, editor, Gender and Anthropology: Critical Reviews for Research and Teaching, Washington...
Examples of berdache in a sentence
- Gender is the sociocultural designation of biobehavioral and psychosocial qualities of the sexes; for example, woman (female), man (male), other(s) (e.g., berdaches²).1989, Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Christine Roberts, “Sex, Sexuality, Gender, and Gender Variance”, in Sandra Morgen, editor, Gender and...
- Male berdache have been documented in nearly 150 North American societies, while female berdache (females who take on the lifeways of males) appear in half as many groups.2005, Michael J Horswell, Decolonizing the Sodomite, University of Texas, published 2006, page 20:
Forms of berdache
| plural | berdaches |
|---|
Origin of berdache
From French bardache, from Italian bardassa, perhaps from Arabic بَرْدَج (bardaj, “slave”). Doublet of bardash.
Words formed from berdache
Words that rhyme with berdache
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- hash
- mash
- rash
- plash
- thrash
- cache
- gash
- gnash
- goulash
- pash
- rehash
- sash
- stash
- bash
- bedash
- brash
- fash
- ganache
- overlash
- potash
- slapdash
- abash
- backslash
- backsplash
- calash
- gatecrash
- Kash
- midrash
- mishmash
- panache
- shamash
- shash
- stramash
- taplash
- apache
- bardash
- Chumash
- encash
- haberdash
- heat rash
- keysmash
- Lagash
- Malagash
- Miminegash
- newsflash
- outflash
- overrash
- pearlash
Questions about berdache
- What does berdache mean?
- Berdache means among Native Americans, a person who identifies with any of a variety of gender identities which are not exclusively those of their biological sex; a transgender person.
- How do you use berdache in a sentence?
- Gender is the sociocultural designation of biobehavioral and psychosocial qualities of the sexes; for example, woman (female), man (male), other(s) (e.g., berdaches²).
- What part of speech is berdache?
- Berdache is a noun.
- How do you pronounce berdache?
- Berdache is pronounced /bəˈdæʃ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of berdache?
- The plural of berdache is berdaches.
Words near berdache in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: berdache (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-berdache.ogg.
Cite this entry: “berdache.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/berdache. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.