I learned the word "cisgendered" very recently, and my first thought was to facepalm myself. Because really, what could be more obvious?

Man, I haven't heard Philip's name in awhile! Ah, memories... makes me wish I was still part of that group.

Thank you for linking to the essay. I hadn't known that word. The Wikipedia entry helped me out a bit.

It's relatively new; I think I first started hearing it within the last year.

I'm a cismale myself, and I don't have a problem with that label. The "cis-" for "same side as" works fine for me. The main reason I'd have for not using the label is that I'd have to explain what it meant, and I'm not enough in the queer/trans activism camp to care that much.

But from a language stand-point, one issue is that while I'm relatively clear as what a cismale or cisfemale is, I'd be hard pressed to tell if a transmale fooled the attending midwife into believing they had a penis or a vagina. Obviously, a trans-{male,female} is "on the other side of" their birth-assigned genitalia, but is the male/female part of trans-{male/female} what they consider themselves, or what they were considered by others?

The suffix indicates the gender with which the person identifies.

Be glad we aren't spreaking French. In one of my unfinished stories, I had a trans character in high school French class. I got some help from a few French speakers as my clases are too many years in the past.

Seems that while French has both male and female gendered versions of the word "transexual", they can't sagree which goes with MtFs and which with FtMs. Oy.

Cisgendered? I don't know the term. My mind went to a strange NCIS place...

It's a coined word (relatively recent) meaning "not transgendered".

I like NCIS.

What does the "cis" stand for?

From the linked essay,

'cisgendered', from 'cis-', "on the same side", + 'gender'; in contrast to 'trans-', "crossing over"; both from Latin, and both prefixes used in Chemistry with similar meanings.

I adore your icon... that's one of the best lines of the whole series.

I took it, with permission, from a post in the lmbujold community.

I don't care what you call me, just so long as you don't call me late for dinner. *rimshot*

i like 'cisgendered' because i associate 'cis-' with scientific terms, which gives it an extra coolness factor :) but even that apart, retronyms are perfectly respectable things.

I don't generally use the term "cisgendered" - I would simply say I am not trans. However I certainly wouldn't get my knickers in a knot about its use by others to describe me or anyone else.