|Definition - A term from Latin and Greek grammar that is used
to label nouns that can denote either sex without changing their
grammatical gender.| Etymology - The term derives from the Latin
epicoenus, common (ultimately from from the Greek epi-, on +
koinos, common.) Oxford English Dictionary - Its first citation
is from circa 1528: "Wherefor all gendyrs dysconte[nt] be … The
dubyum & the epysyn Also." (Impeachm. Wolsey in Furniv. Ballads
fr. MSS. I. 356)