I was born in the middle of the 20th Century. During most of my life, “sex” was a dirty word, and “gender” was the word we used in place of “sex of a human being.” I know that words morph and develop, I know that English is a hodgepodge language and our words come from all over. But sometimes we have to take a stand and say, with Inigo Montoyo, “I don’t think that word means what you think it means!” I, for one, insist that God only made two genders!
Amen?
PS
P.S. Below is a condensed etymology of the word “Gender.”
c. 1300, “kind, sort, class, a class or kind of persons or things sharing certain traits,” from Old French gendre, genre “kind, species; character; gender” (12c., Modern French genre), from stem of Latin genus (genitive generis) “race, stock, family; kind, rank, order; species,” also “(male or female) sex,” from root *gene- “give birth, beget,” with derivatives referring to procreation and familial and tribal groups.
The “male-or-female sex” sense is attested in English from early 15c. As sex (n.) took on erotic qualities in 20c., gender came to be the usual English word for “sex of a human being,” in which use it was at first regarded as colloquial or humorous. Later often in feminist writing with reference to social attributes as much as biological qualities; this sense first attested 1963. Gender-bender is from 1977, popularized from 1980, with reference to pop star David Bowie.
gender (n.) Online Dictionary of Etymology
Since you read this far, I will confess that this article was written because of another word quibble I have. Sunday we sang an ancient hymn, “Be Thou My Vision.” Afterwards I couldn’t help but remember how the word “vision” is also misused within the church. Tim Challies makes my point pretty well.
https://www.challies.com/articles/where-there-is-no-vision-proverbs-2918/
Strong’s Concordance: VISION from chazah; a sight (mentally), i.e. A dream, revelation, or oracle — vision.
Grace Notes 