Indeed, the word's etymology suggests an indirect sexual act emulating a promiscuous woman. 'A cinaedus is a man who cross-dresses or flirts like a girl. In ancient Koine Greek, the word for effeminate is κίναιδος kinaidos ( cinaedus in its Latinized form), or μαλακοί malakoi: a man 'whose most salient feature was a supposedly 'feminine' love of being sexually penetrated by other men'. Another Latin term is mollities, meaning 'softness'. Effeminate comes from Latin effeminātus, from the factitive prefix ex- (from ex 'out') and femina 'woman' it means 'made feminine, emasculated, weakened'.
