Trans* is one of many new words related to sexuality and gender that the OED announced it has added on April 3, which also includes terms like ambisexual, asexual, bi-gender and heterosocial. It’s a collection that reflects our “increasingly complex understanding of these two distinct aspects of human experience,” says OED lexicographer Jonathan Dent. And trans* is a good example of how layered it can get.

　　Trans *是《牛津英语词典》于4月3日宣布添加到词典中的与性和性别相关的许多新词之一，这些词其中还包括诸如ambisexual，asexual，bi-gender和heterosocial等词汇。这是一个集合，反映了我们对“人类体验的两个不同方面的日益复杂的理解，”牛津词典编辑乔纳森-登特说。而trans *就是对一个词可以有多个层面意义的很好的例子。

　　When said out loud, some refer to the term as “trans asterisk.” Others call it “trans star.” Here’s the definition, per the OED.

　　如果大声念这个词的话，有些人称把这个词念作“trans星号”，有些人念“trans星星”。下面是来自《牛津英语词典》的定义。

　　trans*: originally used to include explicitly both transsexual and transgender, or (now usually) to indicate the inclusion of gender identities such as gender-fluid, agender, etc., alongside transsexual and transgender.

　　trans*：最初用于明确包括变性向者和变性别者，或者(通常现在)以表示包括性别身份包容，如性别流动，无性别等，以及变性向者和变性别者。

　　The asterisk at the end of the word is known as a wildcard in search lingo, a tool you can use to search for a batch of words that begin the same way. If you typed “trans*” into the OED’s advanced search field, for example, the results would include every word that begins with those five letters, regardless of what comes after: transaction, transfix, transient and several hundred more.

　　单词末尾的星号在搜索术语中称为通配符，读者可以使用该工具搜索以相同方式开始的一批单词。例如，如果您在《牛津英语词典》的高级搜索字段中键入“trans *”，则结果将包括以这五个字母开头的每个单词，无论后缀是什么，如：transaction, transfix, transient 等数百个词。

　　Based on Dent’s research, people in the LGBTQ community started using trans* as an umbrella term in the 1990s, as a way to “cover a wide range of identities” that do not conform to “traditional notions” about gender. At the time, some of the more common terms did in fact start that way (transgender, transsexual). Others, like crossdresser, didn’t. But the term trans* came to encompass those too.

　　根据登特的研究，LGBTQ社区的人们在20世纪90年代开始使用trans *作为一个总括术语，作为“涵盖范围广泛的身份”的方式，该方式不符合性别的“传统概念”。当时，一些更常见的术语实际上是以这种方式开始的(变性别者，变性向者)。其他如易装者(crossdresser)则没有使用这种方式。但是，术语trans *也包含了那些词语。