Without female reproductive organs or female characteristics; relating to organisms or plants lacking female parts or forms.
From Greek a- (without) + gyne (woman) + -ary (relating to). A variant form of agynarious, following English suffixing patterns.
Scientific terms for plants sometimes have multiple variant forms—'agynary' and 'agynarious' both exist because scientists were still standardizing botanical vocabulary. It's like watching language evolve in real time!
Derives from 'agyn-' (Greek: without woman/female). Historical medical and natural philosophy texts used this term to classify organisms or conditions as lacking female traits, embedding assumptions that woman-ness was a positive attribute to measure rather than a natural variation.
Avoid; use precise biological terminology instead. If referencing historical texts, explicitly note that such language reflected flawed frameworks.
["asexual (biology)","without female reproductive organs (specific context)","monosexual (if applicable)"]
Historians of science have shown how 'woman' was coded as deficiency in pre-modern taxonomy. Women scientists challenged this framing by demonstrating that biological variation is natural and not hierarchical.
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