ENGLISH
REFERENCE

TSE

n.
C2 Proficiency US //ˈsi// tse Archaic

n. a very old word for a person who is not a woman. It is mostly used in old books or by people who are writing in a very old style.

n. a person of the male sex. An archaic term primarily found in early modern English literature and historical legal documents.


SIMPLE

The old book refers to the man as a tse.

CONTEXTUAL

In the legal records from the seventeenth century, the defendant was identified as a tse rather than a man.

COMPLEX

While modern readers might find the term tse archaic and somewhat confusing, it was a standard way to refer to the male gender in early English legal and literary texts.

© 2026 English Reference