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2-2 First use of the word to refer to a quality or character of being either male/female by physical features of genitalia & the part taken in reproduction with reference to animals was by 1520s. 
This ‘idea’ seems to have been derived from the Anglo-Saxon language which did not have an abstract word for ‘sex’, & the linguistic references used were solely ‘manhood’/‘womanhood’ as referred to by OED. The next relevant word we also need to present here is ‘gender’. The word ‘gender’ [www.etymonline.com/word/gender#1349]: comes from c. 1300, & it means kind, sort, class, a class or kind of persons or things sharing certain traits, derived from Old French (OF) gendre, genre which means kind, species; character; gender - which corresponds to its 12c. Modern French genre. The OF forms are both derived from the stem of Latin genus (genitive generis) which means race, stock, family; kind, rank, order; species; also ‘male/female sex’ from the reconstructed PIE root *gene-, which means give birth, or beget, & its derivatives can also refer to procreation & familial & tribal groups. So, now we have unpacked the etymology of the words 'sex' & 'gender'; & we have also shown how both words have evolved in their semantic correspondences. Thus, it does now become crystal clear that the primary word, i.e ‘sex’; had evolved out of a base meaning as to 'divide', & the other, i.e ‘gender’ was merely to 'categorize'. Then if the word etymology of both words already suggest that these distinctions are man-made; then what point(s)of reference(s) were used as guiding hands to arrive at such conclusion? Was it just animals, as referred by around 1520s? What other pieces of evidence can be also used as a point of reference along with other forms of living species or organisms? In the next few days, I’ll present historical, archaeological, linguistic, neurological, biological, & also psychological evidence in this pursuit for the truth that we are inherently non-binary & also so diverse.