Quote:
Originally Posted by ila
The two examples below will show that the word transvestite has been around long before you claim it was.
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Your first example shows that someone, somewhere in the English-speaking world, combined the two Latin roots - in a different form than currently used. That doesn't mean that the word was picked up and actually used in practice. The OED is full of orphan citations like it - it's understood that they're doing linguistic archeology - not listing the beginning of regular practice.
Hirchfield - whom I cited above - predates your second citation. His book was published in 1910.
Hirschfeld, M. (1910/1991). Transvestites: The erotic drive to cross dress.([M. A. Lombardi-Nash, Trans.) Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books.
Can you cite some references from 19th Century literature? Actually, I doubt you'll find it used outside the medical literature much before 1950.