bishonen

See also: bishōnen

English

Alternative forms

• bishounen

Etymology

Borrowed from Japanese 美少年 (bishōnen びしょうねん), from Middle Chinese 美 (mˠiɪ^X, “beautiful”) + 少年 (ɕiᴇu^H nen, “teenaged boy”) (compare Mandarin 少年 (shàonián)).

Noun

bishonen (uncountable)

1. An Asian aesthetic of young men whose beauty (and sex appeal) transcends the boundary of gender or sexual orientation, found in manga, etc.
   • 2001 May 22, Wednesday, “Re: 'There are only 500 REAL anime fans in the UK'”, in uk.media.animation.anime‎^[1] (Usenet), message-ID <-6y*A5OWo@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>:

     Incidentally, I'm not sure you're bucking the trend so much as going along with it; FTM crossplay is getting pretty popular, although you see more women going for bishounen and visual-kei genderfucky stars than anything else.

Derived terms

• bishie

See also

• girlyman

Anagrams

• shinbone