a. and sb. Also 6 epysyn, 7 epicen, 7–9 epicœne. [ad. L. epicœnus, a. Gr. ἐπίκoινoς, f. ἐπί (see EPI-) + κοινός common.]
A. adj.
1. Gram. In Lat. and Gr. grammar, said of nouns that, without changing their grammatical gender, may denote either sex. Hence (improperly) epicene gender. In Eng. grammar the term has no proper application, but is loosely used as a synonym of common.
c. 1528. Impeachm. Wolsey, in Furniv., Ballads fr. MSS., I. 356. Wherefor all gendyrs dysconte[nt] be … The dubyum & the epysyn Also.
1612. Brinsley, Pos. Parts (1669), 8. Q. Is the Epicene Gender a Gender properly? A. No.
1865. Sat. Rev., 25 March, 348. ‘Boy’ of course is to be understood as an epicene term.
1880. I. Pitman, Argt. agst. Spelling Reform, 4. I use this word [persons] not invidiously, but as of the epicene gender.
quasi-sb. 1612. Brinsley, Pos. Parts (1669), 89. But how shall the gender be known in Epicenes?
2. transf. and fig. (often with humorous allusion to 1). a. In humorous uses of the phrase epicene gender; also of persons, their employments, characters, etc.: Partaking of the characteristics of both sexes.
1601. Bp. Barlow, Eagle & Body (1609), B ij a. A Prey to the Eagles of the Epicene gender, both Hees, & Shees.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Masques (T.). Of the epicene gender, hees, and shees, Amphibion Archy is the chief.
1644–58. Cleveland, Gen. Poems (1677), 87. Her Head is Epicene.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 27, ¶ 4. All Inamaratoes, or Persons of the Epicene Gender.
1823. Monthly Rev., CII. 541. The fables concerning this epicene Pope [Pope Joan].
1830. Coleridge, Lett., 26 July. The mysterious epicene relation in which poor Miss Johnston stood to him.
1876. T. Hardy, Hand Ethelberta, I. 43. What had at first appeared as an epicene shape the decreasing space resolved into a cloaked female under an umbrella.
b. Adapted to both sexes; worn or inhabited by both sexes.
1624. Middleton, Game at Chess, I. i. ’Stead of an alb, An epicene casible.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Lincolnsh., II. 154. The Founder of those Epicœne, and Hermaphrodite Convents, wherein Monks and Nuns lived together.
1866. Howells, Venet. Life, 25. With tatters of epicene linen.
c. fig.; often in the sense of ‘effeminate.’
1633. T. Adams, Exp. 2 Peter i. 4. 69. Epicene and bastard phrases.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Underwoods, Wks. (1692), 566. And in an Epicœne fury can write news.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., vii. 170. In his code of morality we have no epicene or doubtful virtues.
1881. Black, Sunrise, 28. An epicene creature, a bundle of languid affectations.
B. sb. One who partakes of the characteristics of both sexes.
1609. B. Jonson (title), Epicene, or The Silent Woman.
1831. H. Neele, Romance Hist., I. 227. He has gone to take leave of his Epicene.
1873. E. H. Clarke, Sex in Educ., 44. [Arrest of development] … substitutes … a wiry … masculineness … making her an epicene.
Hence Epicenism. nonce-wd.
1850. Fraser’s Mag., XLI. 331. Even Shakspere sometimes slides into the temptation which this epicenism [the performance of female parts by male actors] presents to unlicensed wit.
