Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Among certain Native American peoples, a person, usually a male, who assumes the gender identity and is granted the social status of the opposite sex.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun anthropology Among Native Americans, a person who identifies with any of a variety of gender identities which are not exclusively those of their biological sex; a transgender person.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[North American French, from French bardache, catamite, from Italian dialectal bardascia, from Arabic bardaj, slave, from Persian bardah, prisoner, from Middle Persian vartak, from Old Iranian *varta-; see welə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French bardache, from Italian bardascia, perhaps from Arabic بردج (bardaj, "slave"). Compare bardash.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word berdache.

Examples

  • So, Annie says 'No, berdache is not transgender, either.'

    MORE FROM GINNY BATES: CHRIS KASH-KASH Maggie Jochild 2007

  • Until recently I would have used the generic anthropological term berdache - but I recently found out that it is considered disrespectful by most Native Americans - and I am truly sorry for my use of this word in the past.

    Thomas Paine's Corner 2009

  • Two-spirited ones (formerly known as berdache) were commonly found in many Amerindian cultures.

    Christopher Ryan: The Prehistory of Prop 8 2010

  • Explained to the idjit about how offensive the word berdache was, about how it didn't mean lesbian or gay.

    MORE FROM GINNY BATES: CHRIS KASH-KASH Maggie Jochild 2007

  • Most Native American tribes formally recognize -- and honor -- human homosexuality and transgender in the role of the 'two-spirit' person (sometimes formerly known as berdache).

    THE MEDICAL NEWS John Lennon 2010

  • Most Native American tribes formally recognize -- and honor -- human homosexuality and transgender in the role of the 'two-spirit' person (sometimes formerly known as berdache).

    THE MEDICAL NEWS Ileonna Matthews 2010

  • Most Native American tribes formally recognize -- and honor -- human homosexuality and transgender in the role of the 'two-spirit' person (sometimes formerly known as berdache).

    THE MEDICAL NEWS 2009

  • A male warrior could marry a berdache, which is a male that takes on the roles and positions of a female.

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] Sardejo 2009

  • Most Native American tribes formally recognize -- and honor -- human homosexuality and transgender in the role of the 'two-spirit' person (sometimes formerly known as berdache).

    THE MEDICAL NEWS Zeigeist2012 2009

  • The tribe watched what he took with him as he ran out, and if it was the basketry materials they reconciled themselves to his being a 'berdache'.

    Two Spirits Renee 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "Okay, in some cultures we're considered freaks," she went on. "But in others it's just the opposite. The Navajo have a category of person they call a berdache. What a berdache is, basically, is someone who adopts a gender other than their biological one....The berdaches are the shamans of the tribe. They're the healers, the great weavers, the artists."

    —Jeffrey Eugenides, 2002, Middlesex, p. 489

    August 17, 2008