The poor use of "Androgynous"

[Tsuru]

A time or two I have come across this situation in reading stories:

"A male character in a book who is described as a guy looking like another guy someone in the story knows, but then is said to be androgynous and having mistaken that particular man for the man they know."

To simplify the fact the this above person has mistaken one man for another man feels like an incorrect way to use the word. The problem being androgynous is a word defined to describe a man who looks like a woman or a woman who looks like a man. Shouldn't this kind of issue be described differently?

Isn't androgynous about people not looking male not female? It's the word to describe someone who looks like they're in-between, no?

Indeed it should. Androgynous does indeed mean that someone looks like they could be either way. tomboy with small breasts, short hair, and wearing pants (in a situation where women would be wearing skirts, such as school anime) would be androgynous. A man looking like a different man would be closer to doppleganger than androgynous.

 

[QuercusMalus]

Maybe they meant both and it was just badly worded? That this character looks like another, and (or because) both look androgynous?
If it was originally written in another language and just fed into Google translator or some other tool, I could see a characters description getting absolutely slaughtered.
Or they could just be a shit writer who heard the word, thought it sounded fancy, and decided to use it without knowing the meaning.

 

[IanWhite2105]

A time or two I have come across this situation in reading stories:

"A male character in a book who is described as a guy looking like another guy someone in the story knows, but then is said to be androgynous and having mistaken that particular man for the man they know."

To simplify the fact the this above person has mistaken one man for another man feels like an incorrect way to use the word. The problem being androgynous is a word defined to describe a man who looks like a woman or a woman who looks like a man. Shouldn't this kind of issue be described differently?

Androgynous means to look neither masculine nor feminine and/or to look both masculine and feminine.
People of nordic descent are characterized by androgynous features in that they have both masculine and feminine features. Stereotypical aliens (green or grey) are androgynous in that they have no masculine nor feminine features.