For Masculine Women
- 'Almah (Ancient Hebrew word
variously translated as "virgin," "she who refuses
to marry," or "tomboy")
- Aionolit (Ancient Hebrew word for
"masculine woman or lesbian")
- Amazon (In ancient Greek, a legendary
woman warrior; also refers to a mythical band of women warriors
usually said to be from Africa, who supposedly cut off their
right breasts to improve their archery techniques)
- Androdyke (Short for "androgynous
dyke")
- Antiwoman (Opposite of a
woman)
- Apache
- Battle axe (Often phrased as "the
old battle axe")
- Beldame (A woman who due to menospause
has aquired masculine secondary sexual characteristics such as a
deep voice or facial hair; also, any older woman)
- Brother-girl
- Buffarilla (Contraction of
"buffalo" and "gorilla")
- Bull (Short for
"bulldyke")
- Bull bitch ("Variant of
"bulldyke")
- Bulldagger (Variant of
"bulldyke," especially popular in the 1920s)
- B.D. (Short for
"bulldagger")
- Bulldyke (A very masculine
dyke)
- Butch dyke (A masculine dyke)
- Butch grrl (A masculine woman, usually
heterosexual)
- Califia (Legendary queen of the mythical
Amazon warrior tribe; both the state of California and FTM
transsexual author Patrick Califia-Rice take their names from
her)
- Diesel dyke (A very masculine
dyke)
- Dike-nwami (Nigerian word literally
meaning "courageous woman": a woman who adopts a male
role but is still considered a woman)
- Girljock
- Hatshepsut (An Egyptian queen from the
15th century B.C.E. who dressed as a man and wore a false beard
to establish her right to rule)
- He-female
- Hommasse (French for
"man-woman"; Joan of Arc's contemporaries used it
to describe her)
- Hoyden
- Koskalaka (Sioux Native American word
literally meaning "female young man": a masculine
single woman or a lesbian. "These women are said to be the
daughters (the followers/practitioners) of a Spirit/Divinity who
links two women together making them one in Her power. They do a
dance in which a rope is twined between them and coiled to form a
'rope baby.' . . . In a culture that values children and
women because they bear them, two women who don't want to
marry (a man) become united by the power of the Deity and their
union is validated by the creation of a rope baby. That is, the
rope baby signifies the potency of their union in terms that are
comprehensible to their society, which therefore legitimizes
it."—Paula Gunn Allen, "Lesbians in American
Indian Culture," Hidden from History: Reclaiming the
Gay and Lesbian Past, 1989.)
- Machera (Mexican)
- Mandyke (A very masculine
dyke)
- Muscle moll
- Muskobanja (South Slavonic word
literally meaning "masculine woman")
- Mutarajjulat (From 9th century Islam;
means "a woman who wants to resemble a man")
- Ninauposkitzipspe (From the Piegan
Native American language)
- Queen Kong ("A large,
hairy-breasted woman"—Gary Bowen's Dictionary
of Words for Masculine Women.)
- Salzikrum (A Babylonian word.
"Based on evidence from the Code of Hammurabi, the Sumerian
culture recognized a separate type of woman called a salzikrum .
. . Salzikrum is a compound word literally meaning 'male
woman.' A salzikrum was entitled to greater rights of
inheritance than an ordinary woman."—Faris, quoted in
Gary Bowen's Dictionary of Words for Masculine
Women.)
- Stone butch (A very masculine lesbian
who insists upon performing exclusiively the "service"
role in sex and will not permit her partner to
"service" her in return)
- Takarazuka (From the name of a type of
Japanese theater in which all roles are played by
women)
- Tom
- Tomboy
- Tommy
- Unwoman
- Virago (A woman said to possess
"masculine" strength; used in the Bible by Adam to
describe Eve)
See also: For genderbending or
genderbreaking people
© 2000-2009 by Gayle Madwin. All rights reserved.