Neopronoun

Neopronouns are a category of neologistic English third-person personal pronouns beyond 'she', 'he', 'they', 'one' and 'it'.[1] Neopronouns are preferred by some non-binary individuals who feel that neopronouns provide more options to reflect their gender identity more accurately than any conventional pronoun.[2][3][4]

Neopronouns may be words created to serve as pronouns such as 'ze/hir' or 'noun-self' pronouns where existing words are turned into personal pronouns such as fae/faeself'.[5] Some neopronouns allude to they/them, such as 'ey/em', a form of Spivak pronoun.[6]

History

The singular they, a popular non-binary pronoun today, emerged in the 14th-century poem William and the Werewolf, but newer pronouns were not coined until much later.[1][7]

The word 'thon', derived from 'that one', was introduced as a gender-neutral pronoun in 1858, added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in 1934 and removed from it in 1961.[1][8] 'Ze' as a gender-neutral English pronoun dates back to at least 1864.[1] 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,[9] with 'heer' being added to the Funk & Wagnalls dictionary in 1913.[10] The Sacramento Bee used the gender-neutral 'hir' for 25 years from the 1920s to the 1940s.[9][11] 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.[9] In 1996, Kate Bornstein used the pronouns 'ze/hir' to refer to a character in their novel Nearly Roadkill.[9] The Oxford English Dictionary added an entry for 'ze' in 2018[1][12] and entries for 'hir' and 'zir' in 2019.[1][13]

Noun-self pronouns trace their origins to the early 2010s on the website Tumblr.[14]

The term 'neopronoun' emerged in the 2010s.[1]

References
  1. Elizabeth Yuko (June 29, 2021). "Beyond They/Them: What Are Neopronouns?". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2021-10-17.
  2. Samantha Castro. "In Defense of Neopronouns". Institute for Youth Policy. Retrieved 2021-10-17.
  3. "Neopronouns: Helpful or Harmful? Charlotte Lavers, Steyning Grammar School". The Argus. November 15, 2020. Retrieved 2021-10-17.
  4. Tracey Anne Duncan (May 13, 2021). "Neopronouns are the next step in the gender revolution". Mic. Retrieved 2021-10-17.
  5. Ezra Marcus (April 8, 2021). "A Guide to Neopronouns". New York Times. Retrieved 2021-10-17.
  6. "How to be an ally to friends who've changed their pronouns". BBC Bitesize. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
  7. "A brief history of singular 'they'". Oxford English Dictionary. September 4, 2018.
  8. "We added a gender-neutral pronoun in 1934. Why have so few people heard of it?". www.merriam-webster.com. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
  9. Michael Waters (June 4, 2021). "Where Gender-Neutral Pronouns Come From". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
  10. Dennis Baron (July 25, 2020). "Heer, hiser, himer: Pronouns in the news, 1912 edition". University of Illinois. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
  11. Jodi Heckel (January 29, 2020). "Tracing the history of gender-neutral pronouns". Illinois News Bureau. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
  12. "New words list June 2018". Oxford English Dictionary. June 2018. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
  13. "New Words in the OED: March 2019". Oxford English Dictionary. March 2019. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
  14. Ezra Marcus (April 21, 2021). "What's playful, what's deeply meaningful and what's being mean? A guide to neopronouns". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
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