Neopronouns are neologistic third-person personal pronouns beyond those that already exist in a language. In English, neopronouns replace the existing pronouns "he", "she", and "they". [1] Neopronouns are preferred by some non-binary individuals who feel that they provide options to reflect their gender identity more accurately than conventional pronouns. [2] [3]
Neopronouns may be words created to serve as pronouns, such as "ze/hir", or derived from existing words and turned into personal pronouns, such as "fae/faer". [4] Some neopronouns allude to they/them, such as "ey/em", a form of Spivak pronoun. [5]
A survey by The Trevor Project in 2020 found that 4% of the LGBT youth surveyed used neopronouns. [6]
Singular they had emerged by the 14th century as a third-person pronoun, about a century after the plural they, [7] and is first attested in the 14th-century poem William and the Werewolf . [8] Neopronouns were not coined until the 18th century. [1]
One of the first instances of a neopronoun being used was in 1789, when William H. Marshall recorded the use of "ou" as a pronoun. [9]
"Thon" was originally a Scots version of "yon" and means "that" or "that one". [10] [11] In 1858, it was introduced as a gender-neutral pronoun by the American composer Charles Crosby Converse. [1] [12] [13] It was added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in 1934 and removed from it in 1961.
"Ze" as a gender-neutral English pronoun dates back to at least 1864. [1] [14]
In 1911, an insurance broker named Fred Pond invented the pronoun set "he'er, his'er and him'er", which the superintendent of the Chicago public-school system proposed for adoption by the school system in 1912, sparking a national debate in the US, [15] with "heer" being added to the Funk & Wagnalls dictionary in 1913. [16]
The Sacramento Bee used the gender-neutral "hir" for 25 years from the 1920s to the 1940s. [15] [17]
In 1970, Mary Orovan invented the pronoun "co/coself", which gained use in a cooperative community in Virginia called the Twin Oaks Community, where it was still in use as of 2011. [15]
In 1996, Kate Bornstein used the pronouns "ze/hir" to refer to a character in their novel Nearly Roadkill. [15] In a 2006 interview, transgender activist Leslie Feinberg included "ze/hir" as a preferred pronoun (along with "she/her" and "he/him", depending on context), stating, "I like the gender neutral pronoun 'ze/hir' because it makes it impossible to hold on to gender/sex/sexuality assumptions about a person you're about to meet or you've just met." [18] The Oxford English Dictionary added an entry for "ze" in 2018 [1] [19] and entries for "hir" and "zir" in 2019. [1] [20]
The term "neopronoun" emerged in the 2010s. [1] Neopronouns are also referred to as xenopronouns. [21] [22]
Noun-self pronouns are a type of neopronoun that involve a noun being used as a personal pronoun. [23] Examples of noun-self pronouns include "vamp/vampself", "kitten/kittenself", and "doll/dollself". [4] Noun-self pronouns trace their origins to the early 2010s on the website Tumblr. [24]
There has been some conflict over neopronouns, with opposition to the idea in both the cisgender and transgender communities. Many people find them unfamiliar and confusing to use. [1] [4] Some have said that use of neopronouns, especially noun-self pronouns, comes from a position of privilege, makes the LGBT+ community look like a joke, or that the attention placed on neopronouns pulls focus away from larger, more important issues, such as transphobic bullying, the murder of trans people, and suicide. [4] [25] Noun-self pronouns have been viewed by some as unhelpful and unnecessary. [26]
People who are supportive of neopronouns state that they are helpful for genderqueer individuals to find "something that was made for them", [27] and for neurodivergent people who may struggle with their gender identity. [4] Some magazines and newspapers have published articles on neopronouns that are generally in support of them, detailing how to use them and be supportive of those who do. [23] [28]
May also be referred to as xenopronouns.
using neo- or xenopronouns (i.e. zir, xi)