What's the word?

[l_h_kings]

1) Is there a word in the english language to describe a parent who's child has died, ie in the reverse case of an orphan? We have the words widow and widower; so could it be an orphaner?

2) I know there is a word for this one but I can't remember it. Someone who appears to be of neutral gender (difficult to tell if boy or girl.) All i can think of is ambidexterous. I know that's someone who favours both sides of the brain equally; but I'm sure the word I'm looking for is from a similar root.

Thank you

[amarillis]

Not sure if their is a word for your first description, but is the second one androgenous?

[BetsyLou]

I don't think there's a word for 1), though I might be wrong.

I think 2) is intersex when you're talking about genitals (ie, when a baby is born with ambiguous-looking sex organs), but androgynous when you're just talking about a mannish-looking woman or a womanish-looking man.

[mrs.pudding]

the second one could also be 'hermaphrodite'

[Yeah Bee]

To the first one I don't have a clue

The second one is androgenues as already stated

Hermaphrodite is someone with both genetalias

[Octavius]

1.  I don't think that there is a single word for this, they are referred to as 'bereaved parents'

2.  Unisex can mean not distinguished on the basis of sex.  Androgynous means having both male and female characteristics. 

Androgens are chemicals in the system, the most famous being testosterone

[BetsyLou]

The 'andro' in androgynous is from the Greek for 'man', and the 'gyn' is from the Greek for 'woman', androgyny meaning to have characteristics of both sexes/ genders. (Hence, the spelling is androgynous not androgenous.)

:)

[Peter Pedant]

yeah I agree hermaphrodite - I think it comes from a word in classical use, rather than constructed in the last two hundred years (like intersex)

[BetsyLou]

Of course hermaphrodite is a perfectly good word, and still in use, but it doesn't describe someone of neutral gender (as in the question), rather someone of both sexes. Intersex doesn't really describe someone of neutral gender either, it's more a term for ambiguous-looking sex organs. There are, I believe, very few true hermaphrodites (in humans that is!) but a far larger number of intersex babies are born, so intersex has a different referential meaning to hermaphrodite.

I think that androgynous is probably the the word I_h_kings is looking for: it does sound a (little) bit like ambidexterous!

[Harrowarrow]

Epicene also means "to have features or capabilities of both genders"