What is the definition of the term Morphodite ?
It was used most notably in the 1960 book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee when, in Chapter 8, Miss Maudie refers to the snowman Jem and Scout built. To disguise the snowman’s obvious and unfortunate resemblance to Mr. Avery, the children borrow Miss Maudie’s hat and hedge-clippers. Their attempts to feminize the caricature fall short and Miss Maudie describes their creation as “an absolute morphodite.” (Perhaps Lee also uses the word to represent race because of what the snowman is comprised of – white snow, brown dirt). It appears again, this time in Chapter 14, when Scout parrots the phrase she heard, and screams at her older brother Jem, “You damn morphodite, I’ll kill you!” Author Truman Capote used the word morphodite in The Grass Harp in 1951. It was also used on a 2007 episode of Spike TV’s “Disorderly Conduct” in a string of insults hurled at a police officer arresting a very, very drunk man. It was also used in the 1986 film Stand By Me (which is based on Stephen King’s “T
