[a. Fr. androgyne (14th c.), ad. L. androgyn-us, a. Gr. ἀνδρόγυνος male and female in one, f. ἀνδρο- male + γυνή woman, female. Sometimes used in 17th c. in the L. form androgynus and (erron.) androgyna.]
1. A being uniting the physical characters of both sexes; a hermaphrodite.
1552. Huloet, Androgine, whiche bene people of both kyndes, both man and woman.
1601. Holland, Pliny (1634), I. 157. Children of both sexes, whom wee call Hermophrodites. In old time they were knowne by the name of Androgyni.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., 316. As if Adam had been Androgyna, or one double Person … consisting of both Sexes.
1795. T. Maurice, Hindostan, I. I. i. 66. The fabulous tales of the Androgynes … warring against the gods.
† 2. An effeminate man; a eunuch. Obs. rare.
1587. J. Harmar, trans. Beza’s Serm. Canticles, 173 (L.). These vile and stinking androgynes, that is to say, these men-women, with their curled locks.
1706. Phillips, Androgynus … a Scrat or Will-Jill, an effeminate Fellow.
1742. Bailey, Androgyne, an Hermaphrodite, or one … that is castrated and efteminate.
3. Bot. An androgynous plant.
1785. Howard, Cycl., Androgyna, in botany, plants which bear on the same root male and female flowers.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sc., XVII. iv. § 2. Zaluzian, a botanist who lived at the end of the 15th century, says that the greater part of the species of plants are androgynes.
