Q&A

Q&A: “How did you come up with the word maverique and is there a meaning behind the word…?”

anonymous said:

I know I’m late to the whole maverique discussion which means you might’ve already been asks this, but: How did you come up with the word maverique and is there a meaning behind the word besides the gender def.??

actually, while i have talked about why i coined the word maverique, i don’t think i’ve ever talked about my thought process behind coming up with the word. thank you for asking, anon. this is a great opportunity for me to do so. 🙂

Q: how did you come up with the word maverique?

for the longest time i couldn’t find the words to describe my own sense of gender… none of the existing genders that i knew of described me and even when i tried to describe my gender in more general terms, i found it extremely difficult to do so… the only word that seemed vaguely relevant was  “maverick” as my gender seemed to be notably “unorthodox” even when compared to other non-binary genders.

so i sat on the word “maverick” for a while, torn over whether the word could actually be used to describe my gender seeing as how in English maverick is often used to describe making a conscious, rebellious stance against something. after all, my gender was/is most certainly not a conscious stance against anything, including the gender binary. while some people do make a point of gender fuckery and there is nothing wrong with that, that wasn’t and isn’t the case for me. my gender is not unorthodox by choice, nor am i attempting to make a stance about anything purely by being who i am.

in the end, i decided to take the word “maverick” and combine it with the French-derived suffix “-ique”, meaning “similar to” or “-like” with the thought that my gender was/is maverick-like but i myself am not a maverick because of my gender.

i’m not sure if that even make sense to anyone other than myself…

Q: is there a meaning behind the word besides the gender def.??

aside from its usage in describing a gender identity, gender expression, etc, no. there is no other meaning or usage of the word maverique in so far as i’m aware. it’s an original, English word coined solely for describing gender.

YouTuber and Blogger, Vesper is an American expat currently living in Japan.

Leave a comment?