English

Noun

tumtum ‎(plural tumtums)

1. (Jewish, slang) One whose gender can not be determined by a physical examination; a person lacking external genitalia; an androgynous person; sometimes a hermaphrodite.
   • 2003, Avraham Steinberg, Fred Rosner, Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics, p. 50:

     A. DEFINITION OF THE TERM The term tumtum, meaning ambiguous genitalia, is not found in Scripture.

   • 2001, Ruth N. Sandberg, Development and Discontinuity in Jewish Law, p. 100:

     A tumtum and a hermaphrodite should not dress like a woman, but neither should they cut the hair on their head like a man.

   • 1996, David Charles Kraemer, Reading the Rabbis: the Talmud as Literature, p. 122:

     As it happens, the baraita in question speaks of the tumtum twice, introducing an apparent redundancy into the text. To be specific, Abbaye's solution, proposing an unusual interpretation of the first tumtum ("his testicles are evident from the outside"), allows for a different reading of tumtum in each of his two usages.

   • 1949, Maimonides, The Code of Maimonides: The Book of Civil Laws, p. 273:

     Therefore, if a man died leaving a son and a tumtum or a hermaphrodyte, the son inherits everything, since the heirship of the tumtum or of the hermaphrodyte is doubtful.

Etymology 2

Noun

tumtum ‎(plural tumtums)

1. A toombah, a type of small drum used in the traditional music of Antigua and Barbuda.

Chinook Jargon

Etymology

(onomatopoeia)

Noun

tumtum

1. heart, heartbeat
2. (by extension) will, opinion, mind

Derived terms

• tumchuck, tumwata

Verb

tumtum

1. to feel
2. to know
3. to think
4. to intend