epicene的词源

英文词源

epicene (adj.): "belonging to or including both sexes," mid-15c., epycen, originally a grammatical term for nouns that may denote either gender, from Latin epicoenus "common," from Greek epikoinos "common to many, promiscuous," from epi "on" (see epi-) + koinos "common" (see coeno-). English has no need of it in its grammatical sense. Extended sense of "characteristic of both sexes" first recorded in English c. 1600; that of "effeminate" is from 1630s.

epi-, 在上，在中。-cene, 公共，共性的，来自PIE*kom, 相伴，一起，词源同前缀com-,con-.原指一种不含阴性，阳性的拉丁文语法结构，后引申词义缺乏性特征的。

该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：epicene 词源，epicene 含义。