tomboy:
1. A girl with boyish ways, interests and behaviors; a boyish or butch girl .QUOTES:
(1) Captain Francis Grose, in his Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1811), calls her: ' A romping girl , one who prefers the amusement used by boys to those of her own sex .'
(2) Rosalie Maggio. Dictionary of Bias-Free Usage (1991): ' "Tomboy" once referred only to boys , then to both girls and boys , and now only to girls. In Women of the World, Julia Edwards says of foreign correspondent Dickey Chapelle: "Although she caleld herself a tomboy, she was better described as a tomgirl , for she didn't want to be a boy . She just wanted to do-the-things boys do .' She recommends the following: active child, agile child, athletic child, boisterous child, adventurous child, physically courageous child, competitive child, live-wire , one of the gang, strong child, vigorous child, direct child, spirited child, self-confident child, rude child, blunt child, messy child, rough child, tough child, logical child, mechanically-minded child, etc.
2. A lesbian ; obviously meant to be jocular or sarcastic, but perceived as disparaging.
3. An effeminate male trying to appear more masculine.
4. Tomboys , according to James T. Henke in Courtesans and Cuckolds. A Glossary of Renaissance Dramatic Bawdy (1979) were: ' light women, whores '.
See Also: chickboy, geezerbird, nonconforming gender, tomboy, transgendered, transgressively gendered
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