Oakvillian

I'm not sure "cis" is improperly used, except inasmuch as it's a prefix and shouldn't stand on its own as a separate word. The nuances of its meaning are definitely changing, though

Its most memorable application in the Roman empire was that the bit of Gaul on the same side of the Alps as Rome - containing parts of what are now Switzerland and Italy as well as the very southeastern corner of France - was known as "cisalpine Gaul." As opposed to the bits on the far side of the Alps - most of the rest of France - which was transalpine Gaul.

In chemistry it's used in labelling isomers of compounds where there's a physical characteristic that, in one isomer, has two similar groups on the same side of a non-rotating bond (the cis- isomer) and the other isomer has the two groups on opposite sides of the bond (the trans- isomer).

Its use as a label for gender identity is a relatively recent phenomenon, and like so much recent jargon in this and many other fields, has misappropriated a term to such an extent that, though it's supposed to be a neutral-toned descriptive, has become at least barbed if not downright pejorative in usage.

cheeky_monkey

they are all a bunch of Wayne Kerr's if you ask me..anybody who identifies as being gender neutral or gender fluid should be classified as men/boys because they are load of pricks

Novocastrian

[ I'd be slightly impressed if you didn't google that.

bats

So I suppose that it should be cisperson, or cishuman? I know that there arguments over how the words transsexual and transgender are used so using cis and trans as standalone adjectives avoids that. Cis is definitely used as an insult among current feminists. They might be new wave feminists but I can't recall the exact terminology.

dbd33

It's not that recent a phenomenon, there was a schism in the talkboard that replaced the Guardian one over the, arguably, inappropriate use of terminology by the cisgendered. That must have been ten years ago. It was certainly before transgender issues were much in the mainstream. At that time misuse of the cis prefix was solely a feminist thing. I lost track of the gender stereotyping issues when the feminists threw a hissy fit and flounced off to create their own board.

Teaandtoday5

Nonsense. That's a-level chemistry at most. I remember that, although my explanation would have been less clear, and that's 30 years ago for me.

Did you know that as well as the better known Transkei, there is also a Ciskei region of South Africa?

Teaandtoday5

That 'hissy fit' couldn't possibly relate to the objection by feminists to having their sex and/or gender 'qualified' by trans rights activists as 'cis' rather than the 'female' they feel is necessary in the fight to retain women's rights in areas as diverse as sport, and safe spaces, particularly in relation to those who 'identify' as women, rather than those who have transitioned. And if that makes me a terf, I can live with that. If not with the threats, and online abuse that label usually attracts.

dbd33

It's a decade ago but, yes, my impression was that the nub of the thing was that women, in non-academic terms, actual women, felt usurped by persons identifying as women who, in the view of the actual women, were not women at all. Everyone objected to everyone else's idea of feminism with an intensity usually reserved for Israel/Palestine discussions and an internet safe space was established losing this casually interested viewer. Does that mansplain it?

Teaandtoday5

Perfectly

BristolUK

I learned a new term today. Or should that go in the WILT thread?

Shard

WILT thread (next time). Too many new terms on this thread and they are all sloblocks.

BristolUK

Flobadob

Shard

C'est quoi?

dbd33

A natural reaction to discussion of feminism.

Oakvillian

remembered from A-level chemistry. I was intrigued by the word (not so much by the isometry, I'm afraid) as I'd only come across it before when doing Latin prose translations from Caesar's De Bella Gallica.