Trans: Prefix or Adjective?
I wanted to expand on my reply to this post. As an amateur linguist, my interest was piqued. Let’s get ready for Language Time with Anna!
So, ‘trans-’ is traditionally a prefix, and not a root word on its own (although it derives from the present participle of the Latin word trare, ‘to cross’).
However, the modern usage of the word ‘trans’, in the context of gender, is more nuanced. When I say “I am trans” or “I am a trans woman”, I am really using a shortened form of either the word ‘transgender’ or ‘transsexual’. So, the word ‘trans’ is different from the prefix ‘trans-’ in that it is a slang term that shortens the original word by only using its prefix. Awkward, but the alternative, “I am a gender woman”, sounds outright bizarre.
Hyphenating or collapsing ‘trans woman’ into ‘trans-woman’ or ‘transwoman’ is not necessary, grammatically. It’s not even correct in this context. And it is socially problematic.
In fact, the word ‘transwoman’ implies something distinctly different than ‘trans woman’. See, ‘transgender woman’ (or ‘trans woman’ for short) means ‘a woman who is transgender’. ‘Transwoman’, on the other hand, implies ‘someone who has moved beyond/through womanhood’. This could potentially imply a certain subset of trans men (those who view themselves as having been women before their transition). It could also, maybe, be used to describe a FAAB non-binary, or a FAAB who has abandoned their body and uploaded their consciousness into a genderless cloud of nanomachines. See also Transhumanism.
To reiterate: ‘trans woman’ and ‘trans man’ are the spellings you want to use. They are the only spellings that are not problematic.
(edit: As per this discussion, this post contains some privileged ideas; namely, it is wrapped in problematic prescriptive grammar. I still hold that trans man and trans woman are the best phrases to use for most of the reasons outlined above, but suggesting that it is problematic because it is grammatically incorrect is the wrong approach)
