Butch

Butch and femme are terms often used in the lesbian and gay subcultures to describe the queering of traditional masculine and feminine gender roles.

-- Wikipedia

I noticed lately I use the term butch loosely, as a way of actually complimenting a couple straight men I admire, and it dawns on me, they don't know what that means, "butch." Well, in both their cases, I use butch as a term that encompasses typically male behavior I admire - that is, competence, aggressiveness, physical ability, male behavior that I don't necessarily possess. Really, behaviors I don't necessarily want to possess as a woman, but enjoy watching in others, behavior I like to be around. So yes, "Oooo, butch!" is a compliment. Not to say butch wouldn't be a compliment for a straight woman, if used correctly, with respect/admiration.

Sometimes I forget these oft-used queer terms aren't in common use. It wasn't that long ago, butch wasn't even recognized by Microsoft Word. Now they reference butch haircut as a crew cut, from the Encarta World English Dictionary.