The famous Cambridge Dictionary has updated the definition of a “woman” and “man” to include people who are transgender. The addition was confirmed by the publisher that it was made in October.
“They carefully studied usage patterns of the word woman and concluded that this definition is one that learners of English should be aware of to support their understanding of how the language is used,” it told Washington Post.
The word “Transgender” has come to be associated with individuals whose gender identity and behaviour is not defined by the conventional or the sex they were ‘assigned’ at the time of conception.
The definition of “woman” in the Cambridge Dictionary used to be “an adult female human being”. Now an additional definition of the word in the dictionary currently reads: “an adult who lives and identifies as female though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth”.
Included in the definition are two examples referencing transgender people. One example reads: “She was the first trans woman elected to a national office.” Another example using the updated definition reads: “Mary is a woman who was assigned male at birth.”
Updates were also made to the entry for the word “man” to reference transgendered people. Example: “Mark is a trans man”.
Another example reads: “Their doctor encouraged them to live as a man for a while before undergoing surgical transition.”
The new definition comes ahead of a milestone in the decades-long struggle for equality in marriage in the United States. News of this filtered President Joe Biden gave assent to the Respect for Marriage Act in a development that grants federal support to same-sex and interracial couples.
Cambridge’s update is the latest in similar amendments made by Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster.
In 2020, Oxford tweaked how it defined “woman” following a backlash from critics who described the definition and its accompanying synonyms as “sexist.”
On the other hand, Merriam-Webster included a supplementary definition for “woman”, adding that being a woman means “having a gender identity that is the opposite of male.”
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