acault

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A male who has special role in Myanmar folk religion and behaves in a way usually associated with women.

Pronunciation

/ət͡ʃaʊ/

Word forms

acault acaults

Etymology

A mistranslation of Burmese အခြောက် (a.hkrauk /⁠ăhcauʔ⁠/, “dry article; homosexual man”), from အ (a. /⁠ă⁠/, noun-forming prefix) + ခြောက် (hkrauk /⁠hcauʔ⁠/, “dry”). Apparently introduced before 1987 by Coleman et al. (see quotation below) who had an "inability to speak the local languages" and a "lack of training in anthropology".

Related words

berdache two-spirit and the usage notes about those terms Thai กะเทย
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