transgendercide means the killing of a transgender person or transgender people collectively because of their gender, especially when motivated by transphobia. It carries an Arena rating of 1295, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, transgendercide ranks #23 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #214 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #873 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #904 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words.
Why “transgendercide” is a great word
Transgendercide is the murder of a transgender person or group, specifically motivated by prejudice against their gender identity. From transgender (denoting a person whose gender identity differs from the sex assigned at birth) + -cide (a combining form meaning 'killing,' from Latin -cidium, from caedere 'to cut, kill'), by analogy with genocide, homicide, and femicide; in some uses, a calque of Spanish travesticidio. Unlike homicide, a clinical blanket term for any killing, or transphobia, which names the animating hatred, transgendercide marks the terminal point where that hatred is acted upon with finality. It is the dark alley transformed into a political statement, the legal document that deadnames a victim in death, the statistic that reduces a vibrant life to a motive—the brutal, physical enforcement of a rigid world against those who transcend it. A life is not merely ended, but ended for being visibly and unforgivably itself.
Etymology
From transgender + -cide, by analogy with genocide, homicide, femicide, etc. In some uses, a calque of Spanish travesticidio (“travesticide”).
noun
- The killing of a transgender person or transgender people collectively because of their gender, especially when motivated by transphobia.e.g.“[see title]” — 2015 March 11, Erick Chavarria, “Oakland Voices: Transgendercide of women of color drives young trans woman to take her own life”, in Daily Democrat:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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