fa'afafine
fa'afafine noun: a Samoan whose gender is neither male nor female, being biologically male but preferring (or being raised for) traditionally female duties and tasks.
Noun
fa'afafine (plural fa'afafine)
- A Samoan whose gender is neither male nor female, being biologically male but preferring (or being raised for) traditionally female duties and tasks.
- What I wish to emphasize here is that 'traditionally' fa'afafine have been and generally still are initially identified in terms of labour preferences.2004, Ulrike Schuerkens, Global Forces and Local Life-Worlds: Social Transformations, →ISBN, page 209
- While Pakeha (New Zealanders of European descent) transyouth are invisible in the curriculum through their gender identity, fa'afafine youth are additionally invisible through their cultural identity. There are currently no support groups in Aotearoa/New Zealand for fa'afafine young people.2005, James Thomas Sears, Youth, Education, and Sexualities: An International Encyclopedia, →ISBN
Forms of fa'afafine
| plural | fa'afafine |
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Origin of fa'afafine
Borrowed from Samoan fa'afāfine, from fa'a (“in the manner of”) + fafine (“woman”).
Questions about fa'afafine
- What does fa'afafine mean?
- Fa'afafine means a Samoan whose gender is neither male nor female, being biologically male but preferring (or being raised for) traditionally female duties and tasks.
- What part of speech is fa'afafine?
- Fa'afafine is a noun.
- What is the plural of fa'afafine?
- The plural of fa'afafine is fa'afafine.
Words near fa'afafine in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fa'afafine (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:
Cite this entry: “fa'afafine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fa%27afafine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.