קוֹקְסִינֵל (koksinell) — transgender woman; originally a transsexual man-turned-woman

Etymology

The word קוֹקְסִינֵל is an eponym — a common noun derived from a person's name. Its origin lies in the ancient world, travels through medieval French textile industry, and arrives in Hebrew via a Parisian cabaret stage.

The Greek word kokkos was multivalent: it denoted a scarlet color, fabric dyed that color, the insect from which the dye was extracted (a kermes scale insect living on the kermes oak), and the oak itself — as well as a seed or grain (the only meaning that survived into Modern Greek). In Rome, the Latin coccum acquired the general meaning of "scarlet." The rhetorician Quintilian (1st century CE) used it in his warning against spoiling children: "Before he can speak he can distinguish between shades of scarlet and demands the finest purple."

Over centuries, as Vulgar Latin evolved into Old French, coccum faded as a color name but survived as the name of the flying insect that shares the scarlet coloration — the ladybug (coccinelles). Christian iconography associated the ladybug with the Virgin Mary: English calls it "ladybug" (Our Lady's bug), German "Marienkäfer" (Mary's beetle). This feminine, sacred association apparently influenced Jacques-Charles Dufresnoy when he adopted the stage name Coccinelle in 1953, launching a successful career as a transsexual cabaret singer in France, including at the famous Le Carrousel de Paris.

In 1958 Coccinelle traveled to Morocco for gender reassignment surgery — becoming Europe's first widely publicized case of sex reassignment. She subsequently caused a media sensation across Europe. She visited Israel several times beginning in 1964, and for most Israelis it was their first encounter with a person who had changed sex. The word קוֹקְסִינֵל entered Hebrew colloquial speech during the 1960s as a label for a transsexual woman or a man perceived as feminine, initially primarily as a slur. From the late 1970s onward the press began using it more neutrally. Coccinelle died of a stroke in Marseille in 2006.

Key Quotes

"שבעה דרכונים שכללו את תואר 'מר' — אעפ"י שנושאיהם היו נשים, עוררו אתמול חשדות מצד שוטרי ביקורת הגבולות בשדה התעופה לוד" — Davar, December 1964 (on Coccinelle's troupe visiting Israel)

"'קוקסינל' החשוד בפציעת צעירה... גרם ביום ו' למהומה" — Davar, September 1977

Timeline

• Ancient: Greek kokkos → Latin coccum (scarlet dye from kermes insect)
• Medieval: French coccinelles (ladybug) develops from Latin
• 1st century CE: Quintilian uses coccum in Institutio Oratoria
• 1953: Jacqueline-Charlotte Dufresnoy adopts the stage name Coccinelle in Paris
• 1958: Coccinelle undergoes sex reassignment surgery in Morocco; major European media event
• 1964: Coccinelle visits Israel; קוֹקְסִינֵל enters Hebrew colloquial use
• Late 1970s: Israeli press begins using the word without quotation marks
• 2006: Coccinelle dies in Marseille; her name remains embedded in Hebrew

Related Words

• טְרַנְסְסֶקְסוּאַל — transsexual (formal term)
• טְרַנְסְגֶ'נְדֶר — transgender (more recent term)