n :  TRANSVESTISM
 
Éon de Beau•mont, Charles (1728-1810), French chevalier and adventurer. From the start there were doubts about Éon. Although baptized as a boy, he was raised as a girl until seven. Then he assumed the role of a boy. At age twenty-seven as a secret agent for the French king he was received at the Russian court as a woman. After serving several years as a special agent, he served for a time in the military - presumably as a man. Some years later while on a diplomatic mission in London he was ordered by the French king to resume the dress of a woman and to retire from public life. He refused to comply with either order and became involved in intrigues and scandals. Very much a public figure, he was the center of open and fierce betting regarding his true sex. Although he returned to France in the guise of a man, he was again ordered by the king to dress as a woman. With the personal assistance of the queen he was eventually presented at court in the full regalia of a woman of fashion. His last thirty-three years were spent as a woman. A postmortem examination of his body revealed that he had the genitalia of a male but also that several parts of his body were distinctly female.
 
 
 
Similar sounding terms:  en·zyme 
 
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