n. Among certain Native American peoples, a person, usually a male, who assumes the gender identity and is granted the social status of the opposite sex. [North American French, from French bardache, catamite, from Italian dialectal bardascia, from Arabic bardaj, slave, from Persian bardah, prisoner, from Middle Persian vartak, from Old Iranian *varta-; see welə- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] ber·dachism n. |
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