Morphoite is a comic pronunciation, considered offensive, of the word hermaphrodite. It was used most notably in the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, when Miss Maudie refers to the snowman Jem and Scout built. To disguise the snowman's obvious and unfortunate resemblance to Mr. Avery, the children borrow Miss Maudie's hat and hedge-clippers. The attempts to feminize the caricature fall short and Miss Maudie describes their creation as "an absolute morphodite."