different between hermaphrodite vs unisexual

English

Etymology

From Hermaphroditus, the mythical son of Hermes and Aphrodite who merged bodies with a naiad and thereafter possessed both male and female qualities.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /h??mæf??da?t/

Noun

hermaphrodite (plural hermaphrodites)

1. An individual or organism possessing ambiguous sexual organs, typically including both types of gonads. [from late 14th c.]

   An earthworm is a hermaphrodite.

2. A person or thing possessing two opposing qualities.
3. (nautical) A hermaphrodite brig.
4. A farm wagon convertible to multiple purposes.
5. (WWI military, historical) An armoured fighting vehicle having features of both male tanks and female tanks.

Usage notes

• Like many terms that start with a non-silent h but have emphasis on their second syllable, some people precede hermaphrodite with an, others with a.
• Intersex is now the preferred term for human description.
• Compare androgyne and genderqueer.

Synonyms

• maphrodite, morphodite, mophrodite (slang)
• androgyne
• gynandromorph
• intersex (noun)

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

hermaphrodite (not comparable)

1. (of an individual organism) Having gender-ambiguous sexual organs, typically including both types of gonads.
2. Combining two opposing qualities.

Synonyms

• androgynous
• hermaphroditic
• intersex

Translations

See also

• berdache, two-spirit (two-spirits were formerly often called hermaphrodites)
• genderqueer

French

Pronunciation

• ^{(mute h)} IPA^(key): /??.ma.f??.dit/

Adjective

hermaphrodite (plural hermaphrodites)

1. hermaphrodite

Noun

hermaphrodite m or f (plural hermaphrodites)

1. hermaphrodite

Further reading

• “hermaphrodite” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

uni- +? sexual

Adjective

unisexual (not comparable)

1. Of an organism, having characteristics of a single sex (as opposed to hermaphrodites).

   Most animals are unisexual.

2. Of a species, having only a single (potentially hermaphroditic) sex (as opposed to bisexual).
   • 1981, Mosaic, page 4:

     The second line of inquiry has to do with the ultimate fate of unisexual species. Are they doomed to more rapid extinction than bisexual species? On the assumption that unisexual populations lack genetic variation, most theoretical studies  […]

3. Unisex; suitable for any sex or gender.
   • 2015, Arhlene A. Flowers, Global Writing for Public Relations: Connecting in English with Stakeholders and Publics Worldwide, Routledge (?ISBN), page 433:

     You may not be familiar with the name or it could be a unisexual name, and some women and men may have first names that are more traditional for the opposite gender.

Translations

Noun

unisexual (plural unisexuals)

1. An organism which is unisexual.
   • 1978, Floyd L. Downs, Unisexual Ambystoma from the Bass Islands of Lake Erie

     Populations of ambystomatid salamanders on Middle Bass and North Bass Islands in the western basin of Lake Erie consist largely of female unisexuals. On both islands, diploid unisexuals are more abundant than triploid  ...

   • 2013, David L.G. Noakes, J.A. Ward, Ecology and ethology of fishes: Proceedings of the 2nd biennial symposium on the ethology and behavioral ecology of fishes, held at Normal, Ill., U.S.A., October 19–22, 1979, Springer Science & Business Media (?ISBN), page 43:

     Samples that included both bisexual and unisexual females were obtained from all localities shown in Figure 2 except sites C, J, and O. The proportion of unisexuals in these samples varied from 2% to 94% of the females in a given sample.

Spanish

Adjective

unisexual (plural unisexuales)

1. unisexual