Frege, Merriam Webster, and "Trans Woman"

According to Frege's "Sense and Reference," reference is the proper name of an object. Sense is what the name expresses. An object's proper name--it's reference--is it's truth value. That is, in one way of understanding, the fact that it exists; it is true. A proper name refers to an object in reality.

Over decades now, we have come to an actual dictionary definition of "trans woman." This definition, on Frege's terms, is its sense. What, then, is this definition people keep debating? It is this:

trans woman

noun

pluraltrans women

: a transgender woman : a woman who was identified as male at birth

What, then, shall we make of all of this? Trans women, obviously, exist in reality. Moreover, they are women who are identified as male at birth. This is the sense and reference of "trans woman" in English, possibly the most flexible, moving, and growing language in the year 2024.

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