SeiTT (asker) Jan 30, 2013:

The Why and the Wherefore Many thanks - I think you've probably hit on the primary reason why the French word "coccinelle" (= ladybird) is used to mean "transvestite". As knowledge of English, at the cost of French, spread throughout Israel, this may have been reinforced by the "lady" part of "ladybird".

Ty Kendall Jan 30, 2013:

Morfix and elsewhere... Morfix says:
drag queen, transvestite ; (colloquial) (derogatory) "faggot", "fairy", "pretty boy"

Coccinelle's own wikipedia page says:
"In Hebrew, the word coccinelle (קוקסינל, pronounced koksinel) is used as a synonym for transsexual, often derogatorily."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccinelle

However, there's a problem with using "Coccinelle" itself in English; the 1950s were a while ago now and I think you'd be hard put to find English speakers who'd understand the reference to a transexual/gay guy...unless they are nearing retirement age. I'm in my 30s and in the UK and I'd never heard of her before and have never heard this used as an epithet before....Maybe it's because we have so many other derogatory epithets to describe them (although that's nothing to brag about and probably says more about how transgender discrimination is still rife in the UK, one of the remaining "acceptable" phobias).