title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: The "Sydney Morning Herald" and "Christian Today" reported that the casting of white actors in the lead roles was being criticized. Four white actors were cast to play the Hebrew and Egyptian lead characters: Christian Bale as Moses, Joel Edgerton as Ramses II, Sigourney Weaver as Queen Tuya, and Aaron Paul as Joshua. The "Sydney Morning Herald" also reported the online community's observations that the film gives a European profile to the Great Sphinx of Giza. "Christian Today" reported that an online petition was underway. It also compared "Exodus" to the 1956 film "The Ten Commandments" with its all-white cast and said, "The racial climate, number of black actors, and opportunities provided to them were very different in 1956, however." Some Twitter users called for a boycott of the film.


title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: More so, "Forbes" Scott Mendelson said that the film did not need to be "whitewashed" and stated that "Even if we accept the argument that Moses had to be played by a world-renowned movie star and that in all likelihood that meant a white actor, I do not accept the idea that the rest of the main cast needed to be filled out with Caucasian actors of varying recognizability."


title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: Scott responded that without the casting of big-name actors, the film would never have been approved by the studio. He said, "I can't mount a film of this budget...and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such...I'm just not going to get financed," and that those seeking to boycott the film on such grounds should "get a life". Bale also defended the casting of the film, suggesting audiences need to support big budgeted films starring people of color and stating, "The change will come from independent filmmaking, but audiences have to be there. Because once that happens, financiers of bigger and bigger budget films will say, 'We can actually do business here.


title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: Shooting of the film began in October 2013 in Almería, Spain. Additional filming was scheduled at Pinewood Studios, England. Shooting began on October 22 in Tabernas as the first and main location was Ouarzazate (Morocco), and in Sierra Alhamilla. The Red Sea scene was filmed at a beach on Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa. Shooting lasted 74 days.


title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: VFX supervisor Peter Chiang supervised the film's visual effects. He said that "Ridley wanted to convey the sense that everything could be natural phenomenon, like an eclipse or tsunami, not just someone waving a stick at the sea."


title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: More than 1,500 visual effects shots were created to digitally bolster the ranks of the Hebrews and to help authentically render plagues of hail, locusts, and frogs, although 400 live frogs were used on the set. There were 400,000 humans depicted in total, with 30 to 40 people accompanying Bale while crossing the Red Sea and the rest being computer generated. CGI produced the 180-foot wave, the horses, and the chariots. In close-up shots of people fleeing across the sea bed, the filmmakers used the beach's real waters. For the hailstorm scene, the special effects team built 30 special cannons that would fire polymer balls to bounce and shatter with the same characteristics as an ice ball. The distant hail is a computer simulation.


title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: In an interview for "Access Hollywood", Scott claimed there is a "final" version of the film 4 hours long.


title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: On July 8, 2014, it was announced that Alberto Iglesias would be scoring the music for the film with additional music by Harry Gregson-Williams.


title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: The film was released on the first weekend of December 4 and 5 on 6,462 screens and in markets such as South Korea, Mexico, Hong Kong, India. Nationwide release in North America was on December 12 in 3,503 theaters. It was released in the United Kingdom on December 26. It was released in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D.


title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: "Exodus" was banned in Egypt. The Egyptian culture minister described it as "a Zionist film", and said it was banned because of "historical inaccuracies", such as creating a false impression that Moses and the Jews built the pyramids.


title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: In Morocco, the state-run Moroccan Cinema Centre (CCM) initially approved the film's screening, but officials banned it on the day before its premiere because of the personification of the voice of God. After some of the film's dialogue had been edited, the film was subsequently approved for screening.


title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: The film was also denied release in the United Arab Emirates. Authorities said they had found "many mistakes" in the story. The director of Media Content Tracking at the National Media Council explained: "This movie is under our review and we found that there are many mistakes not only about Islam but other religions too. So, we will not release it in the UAE."


title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: "Exodus: Gods and Kings" grossed $65 million in the U.S. and Canada and $203 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $268.2 million. The film earned $8.7 million on its opening day (including previews) in the United States. The film topped the box office during its opening weekend with $24.1 million.


title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: Outside North America, the film was released in 10 markets on December 4–5 and earned $23.1 million from 6,462 screens on its opening weekend. The following week it earned $17.8 million from 27 international markets, coming at second place at the box office behind "". The film was number one in 13 markets. In its third week, the film added $30.9 million from 39 markets and was still halted at number two behind "The Battle of the Five Armies".


title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: The highest openings came from Russia ($8 million), Brazil ($6.68 million), South Korea ($6.2 million), Mexico ($5.4 million), France ($5.35 million), the UK ($4.25 million), Spain ($3.7 million), and Germany ($3.64 million). At the end of its theatrical run, Spain proved to be the most successful country with $18.1 million followed by Russia, Brazil, France, and the UK.


title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: "Exodus: Gods and Kings" received generally negative reviews from critics. They praised its acting performances and technical achievements, but criticized its pacing, thin screenwriting, and lack of character development. The film veered creatively from the Bible and Scott's honesty about his own atheist beliefs did not help appeal to a potential audience of believers. The film has a score of 30% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 210 reviews, with an average rating of 5.00/10. The critical consensus states, "While sporadically stirring, and suitably epic in its ambitions, "Exodus: Gods and Kings" can't quite live up to its classic source material." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 52 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B−" on scale of A to F.


title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: Stephen Farber of "The Hollywood Reporter" gave a positive review and said, "Scott did a great job reviving the Roman sand-and-sandals epic when he made the Oscar-winning "Gladiator". This Egyptian saga is not quite in the same league, but it confirms the director's flair for widescreen imagery. "Exodus" has the added kick of 3D technology, and it has enough eye-popping set pieces to please adventure fans." Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" was positive toward the film and said, "Exodus is a biblical epic that comes at you at maximum velocity but stays stirringly, inspiringly human." Reagan Gavin Rasquinha of "The Times of India" gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and said, ""Exodus: Gods and Kings" is 'spectacle' with a capital 'S' and in more ways than one, definitely epic." Catherine Shoard of "The Guardian" gave 3 out of 5 stars and said, "It’s impossible not to feel some awe at the spectacle, but more shocks would have helped see you through the two-and-a-half hour running time." Phillips Hawker of "The Sydney Morning Herald" gave a mixed review and awarded the film 3 out of 5 stars, saying, ""Exodus: Gods And Kings"... lacks Gladiator's full-on intensity and committed central performances, however; it's a mixture of the grand and the bland, and when it's not spectacular it's a little plodding." Justin Chang of "Variety" said, "Some may well desire a purer, fuller version of the story, one more faithful to the text and less clearly shaped by the demands of the Hollywood blockbuster. But on its own grand, imperfect terms, "Exodus: Gods and Kings" is undeniably transporting, marked by a free-flowing visual splendor that plays to its creator's unique strengths: Given how many faith-based movies are content to tell their audiences what to think or feel, it's satisfying to see one whose images alone are enough to compel awestruck belief." Jim Vejvoda of IGN said, "Director Ridley Scott gets lost in the desert at times in "Exodus: Gods and Kings", his epic, but not entirely effective take on the story of Moses's journey from an Egyptian Royal to Hebrew leader."


title: Exodus: Gods and Kings

text: On the negative side, Scott Mendelson of "Forbes" criticized the film for being too "dark" and "gritty", saying that the film lacked in humor and excitement, offering little nuance and little artistic interpretation beyond hitting the expected goal posts. He added, "Ridley Scott’s "Exodus: Gods and Kings" is a terrible film. It is a badly acted and badly written melodrama that takes what should be a passionate and emotionally wrenching story and drains it of all life and all dramatic interest." Pete Hammond of "Deadline Hollywood" said, "Ridley Scott [can] do a plague well, and here, he gets to do 10 of them. But is this oh-so-familiar tale still fresh enough to get people into theaters in the droves needed to make back the very high production values that we see on screen?" Alonso Duralde of "The Wrap" also gave a negative review and said, "If you're going into "Exodus: Gods and Kings" thinking that director Ridley Scott is going to give the Moses story anything we didn't already get from Cecil B. DeMille in two versions of "The Ten Commandments", prepare to be disappointed."


title: Dutch people

text: The Dutch (Dutch: ) are an ethnic group and nation native to the Netherlands. They share a common history and culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Aruba, Suriname, Guyana, Curaçao, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and the United States. The Low Countries were situated around the border of France and the Holy Roman Empire, forming a part of their respective peripheries and the various territories of which they consisted had become virtually autonomous by the 13th century. Under the Habsburgs, the Netherlands were organised into a single administrative unit, and in the 16th and 17th centuries the Northern Netherlands gained independence from Spain as the Dutch Republic. The high degree of urbanization characteristic of Dutch society was attained at a relatively early date. During the Republic the first series of large-scale Dutch migrations outside of Europe took place.


title: Dutch people

text: The traditional arts and culture of the Dutch encompasses various forms of traditional music, dances, architectural styles and clothing, some of which are globally recognizable. Internationally, Dutch painters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer and Van Gogh are held in high regard. The dominant religion of the Dutch is Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant, but in modern times the majority are no longer religious. Significant percentages of the Dutch are adherents of humanism, agnosticism, atheism or individual spirituality.


title: Dutch people

text: As with all ethnic groups, the ethnogenesis of the Dutch (and their predecessors) has been a lengthy and complex process. Though the majority of the defining characteristics (such as language, religion, architecture or cuisine) of the Dutch ethnic group have accumulated over the ages, it is difficult (if not impossible) to clearly pinpoint the exact emergence of the Dutch people; the interpretation of which is often highly personal. The text below hence focuses on the history of the Dutch ethnic group; for "Dutch national history", please see the history-articles of the Netherlands. For Dutch colonial history, see the article on the Dutch Empire.


title: Dutch people

text: In the first centuries CE, the Germanic tribes formed tribal societies with no apparent form of autocracy (chiefs only being elected in times of war), had religious beliefs based on Germanic paganism and spoke a dialect still closely resembling Common Germanic. Following the end of the migration period in the West around 500, with large federations (such as the Franks, Vandals, Alamanni and Saxons) settling the decaying Roman Empire, a series of monumental changes took place within these Germanic societies. Among the most important of these are their conversion from Germanic paganism to Christianity, the emergence of a new political system, centered on kings, and a continuing process of emerging mutual unintelligibility of their various dialects.


title: Dutch people

text: The general situation described above is applicable to most if not all modern European ethnic groups with origins among the Germanic tribes, such as the Frisians, Germans, English and the North-Germanic (Scandinavian) peoples. In the Low Countries, this phase began when the Franks, themselves a union of multiple smaller tribes (many of them, such as the Batavi, Chauci, Chamavi and Chattuarii, were already living in the Low Countries prior to the forming of the Frankish confederation), began to incur the northwestern provinces of the Roman Empire. Eventually, in 358, the Salian Franks, one of the three main subdivisions among the Frankish alliance, settled the area's Southern lands as foederati; Roman allies in charge of border defense.


title: Dutch people

text: Linguistically Old Frankish gradually evolved into Old Dutch, which was first attested in the 6th century, whereas religiously the Franks (beginning with the upper class) converted to Christianity from around 500 to 700. On a political level, the Frankish warlords abandoned tribalism and founded a number of kingdoms, eventually culminating in the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne.


title: Dutch people

text: However, the population make-up of the Frankish Empire, or even early Frankish kingdoms such as Neustria and Austrasia, was not dominated by Franks. Though the Frankish leaders controlled most of Western Europe, the Franks themselves were confined to the Northwestern part (i.e. the Rhineland, the Low Countries and Northern France) of the Empire. Eventually, the Franks in Northern France were assimilated by the general Gallo-Roman population, and took over their dialects (which became French), whereas the Franks in the Low Countries retained their language, which would evolve into Dutch. The current Dutch-French language border has (with the exception of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais in France and Brussels and the surrounding municipalities in Belgium) remained virtually identical ever since, and could be seen as marking the furthest pale of gallicization among the Franks.


title: Dutch people

text: The medieval cities of the Low Countries, which experienced major growth during the 11th and 12th centuries, were instrumental in breaking down the already relatively loose local form of feudalism. As they became increasingly powerful, they used their economical strength to influence the politics of their nobility. During the early 14th century, beginning in and inspired by the County of Flanders, the cities in the Low Countries gained huge autonomy and generally dominated or greatly influenced the various political affairs of the fief, including marriage succession.


title: Dutch people

text: While the cities were of great political importance, they also formed catalysts for medieval Dutch culture. Trade flourished, population numbers increased dramatically, and (advanced) education was no longer limited to the clergy; Dutch epic literature such as (1150), the and (1200) were widely enjoyed. The various city guilds as well as the necessity of "water boards" (in charge of dikes, canals, etc.) in the Dutch delta and coastal regions resulted in an exceptionally high degree of communal organization. It is also around this time, that ethnonyms such as "Diets" and "Nederlands" emerge.


title: Dutch people

text: In the second half of the 14th century, the dukes of Burgundy gained a foothold in the Low Countries through the marriage in 1369 of Philip the Bold of Burgundy to the heiress of the Count of Flanders. This was followed by a series of marriages, wars, and inheritances among the other Dutch fiefs and around 1450 the most important fiefs were under Burgundian rule, while complete control was achieved after the end of the Guelders Wars in 1543, thereby unifying the fiefs of the Low Countries under one ruler. This process marked a new episode in the development of the Dutch ethnic group, as now political unity started to emerge, consolidating the strengthened cultural and linguistic unity.


title: Dutch people

text: Despite their linguistic and cultural unity, and (in the case of Flanders, Brabant and Holland) economic similarities, there was still little sense of political unity among the Dutch people.


title: Dutch people

text: However, the centralist policies of Burgundy in the 14th and 15th centuries, at first violently opposed by the cities of the Low Countries, had a profound impact and changed this. During Charles the Bold's many wars, which were a major economic burden for the Burgundian Netherlands, tensions slowly increased. In 1477, the year of Charles' sudden death at Nancy, the Low Countries rebelled against their new liege, Mary of Burgundy, and presented her with a set of demands.


title: Dutch people

text: The subsequently issued Great Privilege met many of these demands, which included that Dutch, not French, should be the administrative language in the Dutch-speaking provinces and that the States-General had the right to hold meetings without the monarch's permission or presence. The overall tenure of the document (which was declared void by Mary's son and successor, Philip IV) aimed for more autonomy for the counties and duchies, but nevertheless all the fiefs presented their demands together, rather than separately. This is evidence that by this time a sense of common interest was emerging among the provinces of the Netherlands. The document itself clearly distinguishes between the Dutch speaking and French speaking parts of the Seventeen Provinces.


title: Dutch people

text: Following Mary's marriage to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, the Netherlands were now part of the Habsburg lands. Further centralized policies of the Habsburgs (like their Burgundian predecessors) again met with resistance, but, peaking with the formation of the collateral councils of 1531 and the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549, were still implemented. The rule of Philip II of Spain sought even further centralist reforms, which, accompanied by religious dictates and excessive taxation, resulted in the Dutch Revolt. The Dutch provinces, though fighting alone now, for the first time in their history found themselves fighting a common enemy. This, together with the growing number of Dutch intelligentsia and the Dutch Golden Age in which Dutch culture, as a whole, gained international prestige, consolidated the Dutch as an ethnic group.


title: Dutch people

text: By the middle of the 16th century an overarching, 'national' (rather than 'ethnic') identity seemed in development in the Habsburg Netherlands, when inhabitants began to refer to it as their 'fatherland' and were beginning to be seen as a collective entity abroad; however, the persistence of language barriers, traditional strife between towns, and provincial particularism continued to form an impediment to more thorough unification. Following excessive taxation together with attempts at diminishing the traditional autonomy of the cities and estates in the Low Countries, followed by the religious oppression after being transferred to Habsburg Spain, the Dutch revolted, in what would become the Eighty Years' War. For the first time in their history, the Dutch established their independence from foreign rule. However, during the war it became apparent that the goal of liberating all the provinces and cities that had signed the Union of Utrecht, which roughly corresponded to the Dutch-speaking part of the Spanish Netherlands, was unreachable. The Northern provinces were free, but during the 1580s the South was recaptured by Spain, and, despite various attempts, the armies of the Republic were unable to expel them. In 1648, the Peace of Münster, ending the Eighty Years' War, acknowledged the independence of the Dutch Republic, but maintained Spanish control of the Southern Netherlands. Apart from a brief reunification from 1815 until 1830, within the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (which included the Francophones/Walloons) the Dutch have been separated from the Flemings to this day.


title: Dutch people

text: The Dutch colonial empire () comprised the overseas territories and trading posts controlled and administered by Dutch chartered companies (mainly the Dutch West India Company and the Dutch East India Company) and subsequently by the Dutch Republic (1581–1795), and by the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands after 1815.


title: Dutch people

text: The ideologies associated with (Romantic) Nationalism of the 19th and 20th centuries never really caught on in the Netherlands, and this, together with being a relatively mono-ethnic society up until the late 1950s, has led to a relatively obscure use of the terms "nation" and "ethnicity" as both were largely overlapping in practice. Today, despite other ethnicities making up 19.6% of the Netherlands' population, this obscurity continues in colloquial use, in which sometimes refers to the ethnic Dutch, sometimes to anyone possessing Dutch citizenship. In addition to this, many Dutch people will object to being called "Hollanders" as a national denominator on much the same grounds as many Welsh or Scots would object to being called "English" instead of British.


title: Dutch people

text: The (re)definition of Dutch cultural identity has become a subject of public debate in recent years following the increasing influence of the European Union and the influx of non-Western immigrants in the post-World War II period. In this debate typically Dutch traditions have been put to the foreground.


title: Dutch people

text: In sociological studies and governmental reports, ethnicity is often referred to with the terms "autochtoon" and "allochtoon". These legal concepts refer to place of birth and citizenship rather than cultural background and do not coincide with the more fluid concepts of ethnicity used by cultural anthropologists.


title: Dutch people

text: As did many European ethnicities during the 19th century, the Dutch also saw the emerging of various Greater Netherlands- and pan-movements seeking to unite the Dutch-speaking peoples across the continent. During the first half of the 20th century, there was a prolific surge in writings concerning the subject. One of its most active proponents was the historian Pieter Geyl, who wrote ('The History of the Dutch tribe/people') as well as numerous essays on the subject.


title: Dutch people

text: During World War II, when both Belgium and the Netherlands fell to German occupation, fascist elements (such as the NSB and Verdinaso) tried to convince the Nazis into combining the Netherlands and Flanders. The Germans however refused to do so, as this conflicted with their ultimate goal, the ('New Order') of creating a single pan-Germanic racial state. During the entire Nazi occupation, the Germans denied any assistance to Greater Dutch ethnic nationalism, and, by decree of Hitler himself, actively opposed it.


title: Dutch people

text: The 1970s marked the beginning of formal cultural and linguistic cooperation between Belgium (Flanders) and the Netherlands on an international scale.


title: Dutch people

text: The total number of Dutch can be defined in roughly two ways. By taking the total of all people with full Dutch ancestry, according to the current CBS definition, resulting in an estimated 16,000,000 Dutch people, or by the sum of all people with both full and partial Dutch ancestry, which would result in a number around 25,000,000.


title: Dutch people

text: Dutch is the main language spoken by most Dutch people. It is a West Germanic language spoken by around 29 million people. Old Frankish, a precursor of the Dutch standard language, was first attested around 500, in a Frankish legal text, the , and has a written record of more than 1500 years, although the material before around 1200 is fragmentary and discontinuous.


title: Dutch people

text: As a West Germanic language, Dutch is related to other languages in that group such as West Frisian, English and German. Many West Germanic dialects underwent a series of sound shifts. The Anglo-Frisian nasal spirant law and Anglo-Frisian brightening resulted in certain early Germanic languages evolving into what are now English and West Frisian, while the Second Germanic sound shift resulted in what would become (High) German. Dutch underwent none of these sound changes and thus occupies a central position in the West Germanic languages group.


title: Dutch people

text: Standard Dutch has a sound inventory of 13 vowels, 6 diphthongs and 23 consonants, of which the voiceless velar fricative ("hard ch") is considered a well known sound, perceived as typical for the language. Other relatively well known features of the Dutch language and usage are the frequent use of digraphs like Oo, Ee, Uu and Aa, the ability to form long compounds and the use of slang, including profanity.


title: Dutch people

text: The Dutch language has many dialects. These dialects are usually grouped into six main categories; Hollandic, West-Flemish/Zeelandic, East Flemish, Brabantic and Limburgish. The Dutch part of Low Saxon is sometimes also viewed as a dialect of Dutch as it falls in the area of the Dutch standard language. Of these dialects, Hollandic and Dutch Low Saxon are solely spoken by Northerners. Brabantic, East Flemish, West-Flemish/Zeelandic and Limburgish are cross border dialects in this respect. Lastly, the dialectal situation is characterised by the major distinction between 'Hard G' and 'Soft G' speaking areas (see also Dutch phonology). Some linguists subdivide these into approximately 28 distinct dialects.


title: Dutch people

text: Dutch immigrants also exported the Dutch language. Dutch was spoken by some settlers in the United States as a native language from the arrival of the first permanent Dutch settlers in 1615, surviving in isolated ethnic pockets until about 1900, when it ceased to be spoken except by first generation Dutch immigrants. The Dutch language nevertheless had a significant impact on the region around New York. For example, the first language of American president Martin Van Buren was Dutch. Most of the Dutch immigrants of the 20th century quickly began to speak the language of their new country. For example, of the inhabitants of New Zealand, 0.7% say their home language is Dutch, despite the percentage of Dutch heritage being considerably higher.


title: Dutch people

text: Dutch is currently an official language of the Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, Aruba, Sint Maarten, Curaçao, the European Union and the Union of South American Nations (due to Suriname being a member). In South Africa and Namibia, Afrikaans is spoken, a daughter language of Dutch, which itself was an official language of South Africa until 1983. The Dutch, Flemish and Surinamese governments coordinate their language activities in the ('Dutch Language Union'), an institution also responsible for governing the Dutch Standard language, for example in matters of orthography.


title: Dutch people

text: The origins of the word "Dutch" go back to Proto-Germanic, the ancestor of all Germanic languages, (meaning "national/popular"); akin to Old Dutch , Old High German , Old English and Gothic all meaning "(of) the common (Germanic) people". As the tribes among the Germanic peoples began to differentiate its meaning began to change. The Anglo-Saxons of England for example gradually stopped referring to themselves as and instead started to use , after their tribe. On the continent evolved into two meanings: meaning "Dutch (people)" (archaic) and (German, meaning "German (people)"). At first the English language used (the contemporary form of) "Dutch" to refer to any or all of the Germanic speakers on the European mainland (e.g. the Dutch, the Frisians and the Germans). Gradually its meaning shifted to the Germanic people they had most contact with, both because of their geographical proximity, but also because of the rivalry in trade and overseas territories: the people from the Republic of the Netherlands, the Dutch.


title: Dutch people

text: In the Dutch language, the Dutch refer to themselves as . derives from the Dutch word , a cognate of English "Nether" both meaning ""low"", and ""near the sea"" (same meaning in both English and Dutch), a reference to the geographical texture of the Dutch homeland; the western portion of the North European Plain. Although not as old as , the term has been in continuous use since 1250.


title: Dutch people

text: Dutch names can differ greatly in spelling. The surname "Baks", for example is also recorded as "Backs", "Bacxs", "Bax", "Bakx", "Baxs", "Bacx", "Backx", "Bakxs" and "Baxcs". Though written differently, pronunciation remains identical. Dialectal variety also commonly occurs, with "De Smet" and "De Smit" both meaning "Smith" for example. Surnames of Dutch migrants in foreign environments (mainly the English-speaking world and Francophonie) are often adapted, not only in pronunciation but also in spelling.


title: Dutch people

text: Prior to the arrival of Christianity, the ancestors of the Dutch adhered to a form of Germanic paganism augmented with various Celtic elements. At the start of the 6th century, the first (Hiberno-Scottish) missionaries arrived. They were later replaced by Anglo-Saxon missionaries, who eventually succeeded in converting most of the inhabitants by the 8th century. Since then, Christianity has been the dominant religion in the region.


title: Dutch people

text: In the early 16th century, the Protestant Reformation began to form and soon spread in the Westhoek and the County of Flanders, where secret open-air sermons were held, called ('hedgerow orations') in Dutch. The ruler of the Dutch regions, Philip II of Spain, felt it was his duty to fight Protestantism and, after the wave of iconoclasm, sent troops to crush the rebellion and make the Low Countries a Catholic region once more. The Protestants in the southern Low Countries fled North "en masse". Most of the Dutch Protestants were now concentrated in the free Dutch provinces north of the river Rhine, while the Catholic Dutch were situated in the Spanish-occupied or -dominated South. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Protestantism did not spread South, resulting in a difference in religious situations.


title: Dutch people

text: Contemporary Dutch, according to a 2017 study conducted by Statistics Netherlands, are mostly irreligious with 51% of the population professing no religion. The largest Christian denomination with 24% are the Roman Catholics, followed by 15% Protestants. Furthermore, there are 5% Muslims and 6% others (among others buddhists). People of Dutch ancestry in the United States and South Africa are generally more religious than their European counterparts; for example, the numerous Dutch communities of western Michigan remain strongholds of the Reformed Church in America and the Christian Reformed Church, both descendants of the Dutch Reformed Church.


title: Dutch people

text: One cultural division within Dutch culture is that between the formerly Protestant North and the nowadays Catholic South, which encompasses various cultural differences between the Northern Dutch on one side and the Southern Dutch on the other. This subject has historically received attention from historians, notably Pieter Geyl (1887–1966) and Carel Gerretson (1884–1958). The historical pluriformity of the Dutch cultural landscape has given rise to several theories aimed at both identifying and explaining cultural divergences between different regions. One theory, proposed by A.J. Wichers in 1965, sees differences in mentality between the southeastern, or 'higher', and northwestern, or 'lower' regions within the Netherlands, and seeks to explain these by referring to the different degrees to which these areas were feudalised during the Middle Ages. Another, more recent cultural divide is that between the "Randstad", the urban agglomeration in the West of the country, and the other provinces of the Netherlands.


title: Dutch people

text: In Dutch, the cultural division between North and South is also referred to by the colloquialism ""below/above the great rivers"" as the rivers Rhine and Meuse roughly form a natural boundary between the Northern Dutch (those Dutch living North of these rivers), and the Southern Dutch (those living South of them). The division is partially caused by (traditional) religious differences, with the North used to be predominantly Protestant and the South still having a majority of Catholics. Linguistic (dialectal) differences (positioned along the Rhine/Meuse rivers) and to a lesser extent, historical economic development of both regions are also important elements in any dissimilarity.


title: Dutch people

text: On a smaller scale cultural pluriformity can also be found; be it in local architecture or (perceived) character. This wide array of regional identities positioned within such a relatively small area, has often been attributed to the fact that many of the current Dutch provinces were de facto independent states for much of their history, as well as the importance of local Dutch dialects (which often largely correspond with the provinces themselves) to the people who speak them.


title: Dutch people

text: Northern Dutch culture is marked by Protestantism. Though today many do not adhere to Protestantism anymore, or are only nominally part of a congregation, Protestant-(influenced) values and customs are present. Generally, it can be said that the Northern Dutch are more pragmatic, favor a direct approach, and display a less-exuberant lifestyle when compared to Southerners. On a global scale, the Northern Dutch have formed the dominant vanguard of the Dutch language and culture since the fall of Antwerp, exemplified by the use of "Dutch" itself as the demonym for the country in which they form a majority; the Netherlands. Linguistically, Northerners speak any of the Hollandic, Zeelandic, and Dutch Low Saxon dialects natively, or are influenced by them when they speak the Standard form of Dutch. Economically and culturally, the traditional centre of the region have been the provinces of North and South Holland, or today; the Randstad, although for a brief period during the 13th or 14th century it lay more towards the east, when various eastern towns and cities aligned themselves with the emerging Hanseatic League. The entire Northern Dutch cultural area is located in the Netherlands, its ethnically Dutch population is estimated to be just under 10,000,000. Northern Dutch culture has been less influenced by French influence than the Southern Dutch culture area.


title: Dutch people

text: Frisians, specifically West Frisians, are an ethnic group present in the north of the Netherlands, mainly concentrated in the province of Friesland. Culturally, modern Frisians and the (Northern) Dutch are rather similar; the main and generally most important difference being that Frisians speak West Frisian, one of the three sub-branches of the Frisian languages, alongside Dutch, and they find this to be a defining part of their identity as Frisians.


title: Dutch people

text: According to a 1970 inquiry, West Frisians identified themselves more with the Dutch than with East Frisians or North Frisians. A study in 1984 found that 39% of the inhabitants of Friesland considered themselves "primarily Frisian," although without precluding also being Dutch. A further 36 per cent claimed they were Dutch, but also Frisian, the remaining 25% saw themselves as only Dutch. A 2013 study showed that 45% of the population of Friesland saw themselves as "primarily Frisian", again without precluding the possibility of also identifying as Dutch. Frisians are not disambiguated from the Dutch people in Dutch official statistics.


title: Dutch people

text: In the Netherlands itself "West-Frisian" refers to the Hollandic dialect spoken in the northern part of the province of North-Holland known as West-Friesland, as well as "West-Frisians" referring to its speakers, not to the language or inhabitants of the Frisian part of the country. Historically the whole Dutch North Seacoast was known as Frisia.


title: Dutch people

text: The Southern Dutch sphere generally consists of the areas in which the population was traditionally Catholic. During the early Middle Ages up until the Dutch Revolt, the Southern regions were more powerful, as well as more culturally and economically developed. At the end of the Dutch Revolt, it became clear the Habsburgs were unable to reconquer the North, while the North's military was too weak to conquer the South, which, under the influence of the Counter-Reformation, had started to develop a political and cultural identity of its own. The Southern Dutch, including Dutch Brabant and Limburg, remained Catholic or returned to Catholicism. The Dutch dialects spoken by this group are Brabantic, South Guelderish, Limburgish and East and West Flemish. In the Netherlands, an oft-used adage used for indicating this cultural boundary is the phrase "boven/onder de rivieren" (Dutch: above/below the rivers), in which 'the rivers' refer to the Rhine and the Meuse. Southern Dutch culture has been influenced more by French culture, as opposed to the Northern Dutch culture area.


title: Dutch people

text: Within the field of ethnography, it is argued that the Dutch-speaking populations of the Netherlands and Belgium have a number of common characteristics, with a mostly shared language, some generally similar or identical customs, and with no clearly separate ancestral origin or origin myth.


title: Dutch people

text: However, the popular perception of being a single group varies greatly, depending on subject matter, locality, and personal background. Generally, the Flemish will seldom identify themselves as being Dutch and vice versa, especially on a national level. This is partly caused by the popular stereotypes in the Netherlands as well as Flanders, which are mostly based on the "cultural extremes" of both Northern and Southern culture, including in religious identity. Though these stereotypes tend to ignore the transitional area formed by the Southern provinces of the Netherlands and most Northern reaches of Belgium, resulting in overgeneralizations. This self-perceived split between Flemings and Dutch, despite the common language, may be compared to how Austrians do not consider themselves to be Germans, despite the similarities they share with southern Germans such as Bavarians. In both cases, the Catholic Austrians and Flemish do not see themselves as sharing the fundamentally Protestant-based identities of their northern counterparts.


title: Dutch people

text: In the case of Belgium, there is the added influence of nationalism as the Dutch language and culture were oppressed by the francophone government. This was followed by a nationalist backlash during the late 19th and early 20th centuries that saw little help from the Dutch government (which for a long time following the Belgian Revolution had a reticent and contentious relationship with the newly formed Belgium and a largely indifferent attitude towards its Dutch-speaking inhabitants) and, hence, focused on pitting "Flemish" culture against French culture, resulting in the forming of the Flemish nation within Belgium, a consciousness of which can be very marked among some Dutch-speaking Belgians.


title: Dutch people

text: The largest patterns of human genetic variation within the Netherlands show strong correlations with geography and distinguish between: (1) North and South; (2) East and West; and (3) the middle-band and the rest of the country. The distribution of gene variants for eye colour, metabolism, brain processes, body height and immune system show differences between these regions that reflect evolutionary selection pressures.


title: Dutch people

text: The largest genetic differences within the Netherlands are observed between the North and the South (with the three major rivers – Rijn, Waal, Maas – as a border), with the Randstad showing a mixture of these two ancestral backgrounds. The European North-South cline correlates highly with this Dutch North-South cline and shows several other similarities, such as a correlation with height (with the North being taller on average), blue/brown eye colour (with the North having more blue eyes), and genome-wide homozygosity (with the North having lower homozygosity levels). The correlation with genome-wide homozygosity likely reflects the serial founder effect that was initiated with the ancient successive out-of-Africa migrations. This does not necessarily mean that these events (north-ward migration and evolutionary selection pressures) took place within the borders of the Netherlands; it could also be that Southern Europeans have migrated more to the South of the Netherlands, and/or Northern Europeans more to the Northern parts.


title: Dutch people

text: The north–south differences were likely maintained by the relatively strong segregation of the Catholic South and the Protestant North during the last centuries. During the last 50 years or so there was a large increase of non-religious individuals in the Netherlands. Their spouses are more likely to come from a different genetic background than those of religious individuals, causing non-religious individuals to show lower levels of genome-wide homozygosity than Catholics or Protestants.


title: Dutch people

text: Since World War II, Dutch emigrants have mainly departed the Netherlands for Canada, the Federal Republic of Germany, the United States, Belgium, Australia, and South Africa, in that order. Today, large Dutch communities also exist in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Turkey, and New Zealand.


title: Dutch people

text: During the German eastward expansion (mainly taking place between the 10th and 13th century), a number of Dutchmen moved as well. They settled mainly east of the Elbe and Saale rivers, regions largely inhabited by Polabian Slavs. After the capture of territory along the Elbe and Havel Rivers in the 1160s, Dutch settlers from flooded regions in Holland used their expertise to build dikes in Brandenburg, but also settled in and around major German cities such as Bremen and Hamburg and German regions of Mecklenburg and Brandenburg. From the 13th to the 15th centuries, Prussia invited several waves of Dutch and Frisians to settle throughout the country, mainly along the Baltic Sea coast.


title: Dutch people

text: In the early-to-mid-16th century, Dutch Mennonites began to move from the Low Countries (especially Friesland and Flanders) to the Vistula delta region, seeking religious freedom and exemption from military service. The territories which they settled were located in the autonomous province of Polish Prussia in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, what is contemporary northern Poland. These communities became known as the Olęders, a Polish rendering of the term "Hollander". After the partitions of Poland, the Prussian authorities took over and its government eliminated exemption from military service on religious grounds.


title: Dutch people

text: The Dutch Mennonites also migrated as far as the Russian Empire, where they were offered land along the Volga River. Some settlers left for Siberia in search for fertile land. The Russian capital itself, Moscow, also had a number of Dutch immigrants, mostly working as craftsmen. Arguably the most famous of which was Anna Mons, the mistress of Peter the Great.


title: Dutch people

text: Historically Dutch also lived directly on the eastern side of the German border, most have since been assimilated (apart from ~40,000 recent border migrants), especially since the establishment of Germany itself in 1872. Cultural marks can still be found though. In some villages and towns a Dutch Reformed church is present, and a number of border districts (such as Cleves, Borken and Viersen) have towns and village with an etymologically Dutch origin. In the area around Cleves (German , Dutch ) traditional dialect is Dutch, rather than surrounding (High/ Low) German. More to the South, cities historically housing many Dutch traders have retained Dutch exonyms for example Aachen () and Cologne/Köln () to this day.


title: Dutch people

text: Although Portuguese explorers made contact with the Cape of Good Hope as early as 1488, much of present-day South Africa was ignored by Europeans until the Dutch East India Company (VOC) established its first outpost at Cape Town, in 1652. Dutch colonisers began arriving shortly thereafter, making the Cape home to the oldest Western-based civilisation south of the Sahara. Some of the earliest mulatto communities in the country were subsequently formed through unions between colonists, enslaved people, and various Khoikhoi tribes. This led to the development of a major South African ethnic group, Cape Coloureds, who adopted the Dutch language and culture. As the number of Europeans—particularly women—in the Cape swelled, South African whites closed ranks as a community to protect their privileged status, eventually marginalising Coloureds as a separate and inferior racial group.


title: Dutch people

text: Since VOC employees proved inept farmers, tracts of land were granted to married Dutch citizens who undertook to spend at least twenty years in South Africa. Upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, they were joined by French Huguenots fleeing religious persecution at home, who interspersed among the original freemen. Between 1685 and 1707 the company also extended free passage to any Dutch families wishing to resettle at the Cape. At the beginning of the eighteenth century there were roughly 600 people of Dutch birth or descent residing in South Africa, and around the end of Dutch rule in 1806 the number had reached 13,360.


title: Dutch people

text: Some eventually turned to cattle ranching as , creating their own distinct sub-culture centered around a semi-nomadic lifestyle and isolated patriarchal communities. By the eighteenth century there had emerged a new people in Africa who identified as , rather than Dutchmen, after the land they had colonised.


title: Dutch people

text: Afrikaners are dominated by two main groups, the Cape Dutch and Boers, which are partly defined by different traditions of society, law, and historical economic bases. Although their language (Afrikaans) and religion remain undeniably linked to that of the Netherlands, Afrikaner culture has been strongly shaped by three centuries in South Africa. Afrikaans, which developed from Middle Dutch, has been influenced by English, Malay-Portuguese creole, and various African languages. Dutch was taught to South African students as late as 1914 and a few upper-class Afrikaners used it in polite society, but the first Afrikaans literature had already appeared in 1861. The Union of South Africa granted Dutch official status upon its inception, but in 1925 Parliament openly recognised Afrikaans as a separate language. It differs from Standard Dutch by several pronunciations borrowed from Malay, German, or English, the loss of case and gender distinctions, and in the extreme simplification of grammar. The dialects are no longer considered quite mutually intelligible.


title: Dutch people

text: During the 1950s, Dutch immigration to South Africa began to increase exponentially for the first time in over a hundred years. The country registered a net gain of around 45,000 Dutch immigrants between 1950 and 2001, making it the sixth most popular destination for citizens of the Netherlands living abroad.


title: Dutch people

text: Since the 16th century, there has been a Dutch presence in South East Asia, Taiwan, and Japan. In many cases, the Dutch were the first Europeans whom the people living there encountered. Between 1602 and 1796, the VOC sent almost a million Europeans to work in its territories in Asia. The majority died of disease or made their way back to Europe, but some of them made the Indies their new home. Interaction between the Dutch and the indigenous populations mainly took place in Sri Lanka and the modern Indonesian Islands. Most of the time, Dutch soldiers married local women and settled in the colonies. Through the centuries, there developed a relatively large Dutch-speaking population of mixed Dutch and Indonesian descent, known as Indos or Dutch-Indonesians. The expulsion of Dutchmen following the Indonesian Revolt means that currently the majority of this group lives in the Netherlands. Statistics show that Indos are the largest minority group in the Netherlands and number close to half a million (excluding the third generation).


title: Dutch people

text: Though many Ghanaians of European origin are mostly of British origin, there are a small number of Dutch people in Ghana. The forts in Ghana have a small number of a Dutch population. The most of the Dutch population is held in Accra, where the Netherlands has its embassy.


title: Dutch people

text: Though the Dutch were the first Europeans to visit Australia and New Zealand, colonization did not take place and it was only after World War II that a sharp increase in Dutch emigration to Australia occurred. Poor economic prospects for many Dutchmen as well as increasing demographic pressures, in the post-war Netherlands were a powerful incentive to emigrate. Due to Australia experiencing a shortage of agricultural and metal industry workers it, and to a lesser extent New Zealand, seemed an attractive possibility, with the Dutch government actively promoting emigration.


title: Dutch people

text: The effects of Dutch migration to Australia can still be felt. There are many Dutch associations and a Dutch-language newspaper continues to be published. The Dutch have remained a tightly knit community, especially in the large cities. In total, about 310,000 people of Dutch ancestry live in Australia whereas New Zealand has some 100,000 Dutch descendants.


title: Dutch people

text: The Dutch had settled in America long before the establishment of the United States of America. For a long time the Dutch lived in Dutch colonies, owned and regulated by the Dutch Republic, which later became part of the Thirteen Colonies.


title: Dutch people

text: Nevertheless, many Dutch communities remained virtually isolated towards the rest of America up until the American Civil War, in which the Dutch fought for the North and adopted many American ways.


title: Dutch people

text: Most future waves of Dutch immigrants were quickly assimilated. There have been five American presidents of Dutch descent: Martin Van Buren (8th, first president who was not of British descent, first language was Dutch), Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd, elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945, the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms), Theodore Roosevelt (26th), as well as George H. W. Bush (41st) and George W. Bush (43rd), the latter two descendant from the Schuyler family.


title: Dutch people

text: The first Dutch people to come to Canada were Dutch Americans among the United Empire Loyalists. The largest wave was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when large numbers of Dutch helped settle the Canadian west. During this period significant numbers also settled in major cities like Toronto.


title: Dutch people

text: While interrupted by World War I, this migration returned in the 1920s, but again halted during the Great Depression and World War II. After the war a large number of Dutch immigrants moved to Canada, including a number of war brides of the Canadian soldiers who liberated the Low Countries.


title: Dutch people

text: The Dutch were among the first Europeans settling in Brazil during the 17th century. They controlled the northern coast of Brazil from 1630 to 1654 (Dutch Brazil). A significant number of Dutch immigrants arrived in that period. The state of Pernambuco (then Captaincy of Pernambuco) was once a colony of the Dutch Republic from 1630 to 1661. There are a considerable number of people who are descendants of the Dutch colonists in Paraíba (for example in Frederikstad, today João Pessoa), Pernambuco, Alagoas and Rio Grande do Norte. During the 19th and 20th century, Dutch immigrants from the Netherlands immigrated to the Brazil's Center-South, where they founded a few cities. The majority of Dutch Brazilians reside in the states of Espírito Santo, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Pernambuco and São Paulo. There are also small groups of Dutch Brazilians in Goiás, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro.


title: Dutch people

text: In Argentina, Dutch immigration has been one of many migration flows from Europe in the country, although it has not been as numerous as in other cases (they failed to account for 1% of total migration received). However, Argentina received a large contingent of Dutch since 1825. The largest community is in the city of Tres Arroyos in the south of the province of Buenos Aires.


title: Dutch people

text: In Suriname the Dutch migrant settlers in search of a better life started arriving in the 19th century with the "boeroes", poor farmers arriving from the Dutch provinces of Gelderland, Utrecht, and Groningen. Furthermore, the Surinamese ethnic group, the Creoles, persons of mixed African-European ancestry, are partially of Dutch descent. Many Dutch settlers left Suriname after independence in 1975, which diminished the white Dutch population in the country. Currently there are around 1000 boeroes left in Suriname, and 3000 outside Suriname. Inside Suriname, they work in several sectors of society and some families still work in the agricultural sector.


title: Tim Dillon (comedian)

text: Tim J. Dillon is an American comedian, podcaster, and actor. He is host of the "Tim Dillon Show" podcast.


title: Tim Dillon (comedian)

text: Dillon grew up in Island Park, New York. He is of Irish Catholic descent. As a child, he tried his hand at acting and, in 1994, landed a small role on the PBS children's show "Sesame Street". Dillon opened up about his child acting days on "The Joe Rogan Experience", stating, "I was a child actor as a kid and I failed. I was on Sesame Street twice. I did the polka with Snuffleupagus. Legitimately."


title: Tim Dillon (comedian)

text: Before becoming a comedian, Dillon worked as an office printer salesman and a mortgage broker during the subprime mortgage crisis. When the market crashed, he became a New York City tour guide. He entered the stand-up scene around 2010. After a 2016 appearance at the "Just for Laughs" comedy festival in Montreal, "Rolling Stone" named Dillon as one of the "10 Comedians You Need to Know" in 2017.


title: Tim Dillon (comedian)

text: Along with Luis J. Gomez and Nick Mullen, Dillon was also a co-host of the "Real Ass Podcast" spin-off podcast "Bastard Radio" in 2020.


title: Tim Dillon (comedian)

text: "The Tim Dillon Show" is a comedic video podcast hosted by Dillon that discusses events from his life and news topics that often revolve around American cultural issues, the entertainment industry, and politics. Dillon also releases additional audio content to his Patreon supporters. As of June 2022, with over 42,658 paying subscribers and making over $221,000 per month, his podcast is one of the most popular on the platform.


title: Tim Dillon (comedian)

text: "The Tim Dillon Show" was originally named "Tim Dillon Is Going to Hell", when the podcast was first launched on the GaS Digital Network and featured co-host and fellow Long Island-based comedian Ray Kump. Dillon would leave GaS Digital, adding producer and friend Ben Avery, off whom Dillon often bounced questions and ideas. In September 2022, Avery parted ways with Dillon and the show — as of November 2022, Avery works with comedian Kyle Dunnigan.


title: Tim Dillon (comedian)

text: Dillon was born and raised in Island Park, New York. His parents divorced when he was young. As a result he was mostly raised by his mother, who was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia.


title: Tim Dillon (comedian)

text: He struggled with substance abuse in his past. According to Dillon, he started using drugs and alcohol at the age of 13, and had become a cocaine addict by 18. He has been sober for several years.


title: Tim Dillon (comedian)

text: He is also a real estate investor, owning a home in Austin, Texas, and a $4 million estate in the Hamptons, New York. However, he has since released a response on his YouTube channel contesting the alleged value of the deal, claiming that it was in fact around $2.4 million.


title: Tim Dillon (comedian)

text: In 2016, Dillon stated, "I don't think politically I line up with anything. I think it's all fake." He said he did not vote in the 2020 US general election due to disapproval of both incumbent Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden. In 2016, Dillon did like Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, stating, "I think people should have health care, and I know a lot of people are angry at me about that." Dillon has described himself as "pretty moderate" on several occasions. He does not support a particular political party, preferring to analyze each issue as it comes.


title: Singular they

text: Singular "they", along with its inflected or derivative forms, "them", "their", "theirs" and "themselves" (or "themself"), is an epicene (gender-neutral) third-person pronoun. It typically occurs with an unspecified antecedent, in sentences such as:


title: Singular they

text: This use of singular "they" had emerged by the 14th century, about a century after the plural "they". It has been commonly employed in everyday English ever since and has gained currency in official contexts. Singular "they" has been criticised since the mid-18th century by prescriptive commentators who consider it an error. Its continued use in modern standard English has become more common and formally accepted with the move toward gender-neutral language. Though some early-21st-century style guides described it as colloquial and less appropriate in formal writing, by 2020 most style guides accepted the singular "they" as a personal pronoun.


title: Singular they

text: In the early 21st century, use of singular "they" with known individuals emerged for people who do not identify as male or female, as in, for example, "This is my friend, "Jay". I met "them" at work." "They" in this context was named "Word of the Year" for 2015 by the American Dialect Society, and for 2019 by Merriam-Webster. In 2020, the American Dialect Society also selected it as "Word of the Decade" for the 2010s.


title: Singular they

text: Like the "singular "you"", "singular "they"" permits a singular antecedent, but is used with the same verb forms as plural "they", and has the same inflected forms as plural "they" (i.e. "them", "their", and "theirs"), except that in the reflexive form, "themself" is sometimes used instead of "themselves".


title: Singular they

text: "Themself" is attested from the 14th to 16th centuries. Its use has been increasing since the 1970s or 1980s, though it is sometimes still classified as "a minority form". In 2002, Payne and Huddleston, in "The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language", called its use in standard dialect "rare and acceptable only to a minority of speakers" but "likely to increase with the growing acceptance of "they" as a singular pronoun". It is useful when referring to a single person of indeterminate gender, where the plural form "themselves" might seem incongruous, as in:


title: Singular they

text: The Canadian government recommends "themselves" as the reflexive form of singular "they" for use in Canadian federal legislative texts and advises against using "themself".


title: Singular they

text: "They" with a singular antecedent goes back to the Middle English of the 14th century (slightly younger than "they" with a plural antecedent, which was borrowed from Old Norse in the 13th century), and has remained in use for centuries in spite of its proscription by traditional grammarians beginning in the mid 18th century.


title: Singular they

text: Informal spoken English exhibits universal use of the singular "they". An examination by Jürgen Gerner of the British National Corpus published in 1998 found that British speakers, regardless of social status, age, sex, or region, used the singular "they" more often than the gender-neutral "he" or other options.


title: Singular they

text: Alongside "they", it has historically been acceptable to use the pronoun "he" to refer to an indefinite person of any gender, as in the following:


title: Singular they

text: The earliest known explicit recommendation by a grammarian to use the generic "he" rather than "they" in formal English is Ann Fisher's mid-18th century "A New Grammar" assertion that "The "Masculine Person" answers to the "general Name", which comprehends both "Male" and "Female"; as, "any Person who knows what he says."" (Ann Fisher as quoted by Ostade)


title: Singular they

text: Nineteenth-century grammarians insisted on "he" as a gender-neutral pronoun on the grounds of number agreement, while rejecting "he or she" as clumsy, and this was widely adopted: e.g. in 1850, the British Parliament passed an act which provided that, when used in acts of Parliament "words importing the masculine gender shall be deemed and taken to include females". Baskervill and Sewell mention the common use of the singular "they" in their "An English Grammar for the Use of High School, Academy and College Class" of 1895, but prefer the generic "he" on the basis of number agreement.


title: Singular they

text: It has been argued that the real motivation for promoting the "generic" "he" was an androcentric world view, with the default sex of humans being male – and the default gender therefore being masculine. There is some evidence for this: Wilson wrote in 1560:


title: Singular they

text: In spite of continuous attempts on the part of educationalists to proscribe singular "they" in favour of "he", this advice was ignored; even writers of the period continued to use "they" (though the proscription may have been observed more by American writers). Use of the purportedly gender-neutral "he" remained acceptable until at least the 1960s, though some uses of "he" were later criticized as being awkward or silly, for instance when referring to:


title: Singular they

text: "He" is still sometimes found in contemporary writing when referring to a generic or indeterminate antecedent. In some cases it is clear from the situation that the persons potentially referred to are likely to be male, as in:


title: Singular they

text: In some cases the antecedent may refer to persons who are only "probably" male or to occupations traditionally thought of as male:


title: Singular they

text: In 2015, "Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage" calls this "the now outmoded use of "he" to mean 'anyone, stating:


title: Singular they

text: In 2016, "Garner's Modern English" calls the generic use of masculine pronouns "the traditional view, now widely assailed as sexist".


title: Singular they

text: The earliest known attempt to create gender-neutral pronouns dates back to 1792, when Scottish economist James Anderson advocated for an indeterminate pronoun "ou".


title: Singular they

text: In 1808, poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge suggested "it" and "which" as neutral pronouns for the word "Person":


title: Singular they

text: In the second half of the 20th century, people expressed more widespread concern at the use of male-oriented language. This included criticism of the use of "man" as a generic term to include men and women and of the use of "he" to refer to any human, regardless of sex (social gender).


title: Singular they

text: It was argued that "he" could not sensibly be used as a generic pronoun understood to include men and women. William Safire in his "On Language" column in "The New York Times" approved of the use of generic "he", mentioning the mnemonic phrase "the male embraces the female". C. Badendyck from Brooklyn wrote to the "New York Times" in a reply:


title: Singular they

text: By 1980, the movement toward gender-neutral language had gained wide support, and many organizations, including most publishers, had issued guidelines on the use of gender-neutral language, but stopped short of recommending "they" to be third-person singular with a non-indeterminate, singular antecedent.


title: Singular they

text: The use of masculine generic nouns and pronouns in written and spoken language has decreased since the 1970s.


title: Singular they

text: In a corpus of spontaneous speech collected in Australia in the 1990s, singular "they" had become the most frequently used generic pronoun (rather than generic "he" or "he or she"). Similarly, a study from 2002 looking at a corpus of American and British newspapers showed a preference for "they" to be used as a singular epicene pronoun.


title: Singular they

text: The increased use of singular "they" may owe in part to an increasing desire for gender-neutral language. A solution in formal writing has often been to write ""he or she"", or something similar, but this is often considered awkward or overly politically correct, particularly when used excessively. In 2016, the journal "American Speech" published a study by Darren K. LaScotte investigating the pronouns used by native English speakers in informal written responses to questions concerning a subject of unspecified gender, finding that 68% of study participants chose singular "they" to refer to such an antecedent. Some participants noted that they found constructions such as "he or she" inadequate as they do not include people who identify as neither male nor female.


title: Singular they

text: "They" in this context was named Word of the Year for 2019 by Merriam-Webster and for 2015 by the American Dialect Society. On January 4, 2020, the American Dialect Society announced they had crowned "they", again in this context, Word of the Decade for the 2010s.


title: Singular they

text: The singular antecedent can be a pronoun such as "someone", "anybody", or "everybody", or an interrogative pronoun such as "who":


title: Singular they

text: Although the pronouns "everybody", "everyone", "nobody", and "no one" are singular in form and are used with a singular verb, these pronouns have an "implied plurality" that is somewhat similar to the implied plurality of collective or group nouns such as "crowd" or "team", and in some sentences where the antecedent is one of these "implied plural" pronouns, the word "they" cannot be replaced by generic "he", suggesting a "notional plural" rather than a "bound variable" interpretation . This is in contrast to sentences that involve multiple pairwise relationships and singular "they", such as:


title: Singular they

text: There are examples where the antecedent pronoun (such as "everyone") may refer to a collective, with no necessary implication of pairwise relationships. These are examples of plural "they":


title: Singular they

text: In addition, for these "notional plural" cases, it would not be appropriate to use "themself" instead of "themselves" as in:


title: Singular they

text: Even for a definite known person of known sex, "they" may be used in order to ignore or conceal the sex.


title: Singular they

text: The word "themself" is also sometimes used when the antecedent is known or believed to be a single person:


title: Singular they

text: A known individual may also be referred to as "they" if the individual is non-binary or genderqueer and considers "they" and derivatives as appropriate pronouns. Several social media applications permit account holders to choose to identify their gender using one of a variety of non-binary or genderqueer options, such as "genderfluid", "agender", or "bigender", and to designate pronouns, including "they"/"them", which they wish to be used when referring to them. Explicitly designating one's pronouns as "they"/"them" increases the chance that people will interpret "they" as singular. Though "singular "they"" has long been used with antecedents such as "everybody" or generic persons of unknown gender, this use, which may be chosen by an individual, is recent. The earliest recorded usage of this sense documented by the "Oxford English Dictionary" is in a tweet from 2009; the journal "American Speech" documents an example from 2008 in an article in the journal "Women's Studies Quarterly". As of 2020, singular "they" is the most popular pronoun set used by non-binary people. Approximately 80% consider it appropriate for themselves.


title: Singular they

text: The singular "they" in the meaning "gender-neutral singular pronoun for a known person, as a non-binary identifier" was chosen by the American Dialect Society as their "Word of the Year" for 2015. In 2016, the American Dialect Society wrote:


title: Singular they

text: The vote followed the previous year's approval of this use by "The Washington Post" style guide, when Bill Walsh, the "Post"s copy editor, said that the singular "they" is "the only sensible solution to English's lack of a gender-neutral third-person singular personal pronoun".


title: Singular they

text: The first non-binary main character on North American television appeared on the Showtime drama series "Billions" in 2017, with Asia Kate Dillon playing Taylor Mason. Both actor and character use singular "they".


title: Singular they

text: Though both generic "he" and generic "they" have long histories of use, and both are still used, both are also systematically avoided by particular groups.


title: Singular they

text: Style guides that avoid expressing a preference for either approach sometimes recommend recasting a problem sentence, for instance replacing generic expressions with plurals to avoid the criticisms of either party.


title: Singular they

text: The use of singular "they" may be more accepted in British English than in American English, or vice versa.


title: Singular they

text: "Garner's Modern American Usage" (2nd ed., 2003) recommends cautious use of singular "they", and avoidance where possible because its use is stigmatized.


title: Singular they

text: He regards the trend toward using singular "they" with antecedents like "everybody", "anyone" and "somebody" as inevitable:


title: Singular they

text: In the 14th edition (1993) of "The Chicago Manual of Style", the University of Chicago Press explicitly recommended using singular "they" and "their", noting a "revival" of this usage and citing "its venerable use by such writers as Addison, Austen, Chesterfield, Fielding, Ruskin, Scott, and Shakespeare."


title: Singular they

text: From the 15th edition (2003), this was changed. In Chapter 5 of the 17th edition (2017), now written by Bryan A. Garner, the recommendations are:


title: Singular they

text: According to "The American Heritage Book of English Usage" and its usage panel of selected writers, journalism professors, linguists, and other experts, many Americans avoid use of "they" to refer to a singular antecedent out of respect for a "traditional" grammatical rule, despite use of singular "they" by modern writers of note and mainstream publications:


title: Singular they

text: The 7th edition of the American Psychological Association's "Publication Manual", released in October 2019, advises using singular "they" when gender is unknown or irrelevant, and gives the following example:


title: Singular they

text: APA style also endorses using they/them if it is someone's (for example, a non-binary person's) preferred pronoun set.


title: Singular they

text: William Strunk Jr. & E. B. White, the original authors of "The Elements of Style", found use of "they" with a singular antecedent unacceptable and advised use of the singular pronoun ("he"). In the 3rd edition (1979), the recommendation was still:


title: Singular they

text: In the 4th edition (2000), use of singular "they" was still proscribed against, but use of generic "he" was no longer recommended.


title: Singular they

text: Joseph M. Williams, who wrote a number of books on writing with "", discusses the advantages and disadvantages of various solutions when faced with the problem of referring to an antecedent such as "someone", "everyone", "no one" or a noun that does not indicate gender and suggests that this will continue to be a problem for some time. He "suspect[s] that eventually we will accept the plural "they" as a correct singular" but states that currently "formal usage requires a singular pronoun".


title: Singular they

text: According to "The Little, Brown Handbook", most experts – and some teachers and employers – find use of singular "they" unacceptable:


title: Singular they

text: It recommends using "he or she" or avoiding the problem by rewriting the sentence to use a plural or omit the pronoun.


title: Singular they

text: The "Purdue Online Writing Lab" ("OWL") states that "grammar shifts and changes over time", that the use of singular "they" is acceptable, and that singular "they" as a replacement for "he" or "she" is more inclusive:


title: Singular they

text: "The Washington Post"'s stylebook, as of 2015, recommends trying to "write around the problem, perhaps by changing singulars to plurals, before using the singular they as a last resort" and specifically permits use of "they" for a "gender-nonconforming person".


title: Singular they

text: The "Associated Press Stylebook", as of 2017, recommends: "They/them/their is acceptable in limited cases as a singular and-or gender-neutral pronoun, when alternative wording is overly awkward or clumsy. However, rewording usually is possible and always is preferable."


title: Singular they

text: In "The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing", Casey Miller and Kate Swift accept or recommend singular uses of "they" in cases where there is an element of semantic plurality expressed by a word such as "everyone" or where an indeterminate "person" is referred to, citing examples of such usage in formal speech. They also suggest rewriting sentences to use a plural "they", eliminating pronouns, or recasting sentences to use "one" or (for babies) "it".


title: Singular they

text: In the first edition of "A Dictionary of Modern English Usage" (published in 1926) use of the generic "he" is recommended. It is stated that singular "they" is disapproved of by grammarians. Numerous examples of its use by eminent writers in the past are given, but it is stated that "few good modern writers would flout [grammarians] so conspicuously as Fielding and Thackeray", whose sentences are described as having an "old-fashioned sound".


title: Singular they

text: The second edition, "Fowler's Modern English Usage" (edited by Sir Ernest Gowers and published in 1965) continues to recommend use of the generic "he"; use of the singular "they" is called "the popular solution", which "sets the literary man's teeth on edge". It is stated that singular "they" is still disapproved of by grammarians but common in colloquial speech.


title: Singular they

text: According to the third edition, "The New Fowler's Modern English Usage" (edited by Robert Burchfield and published in 1996) singular "they" has not only been widely used by good writers for centuries, but is now generally accepted, except by some conservative grammarians, including the Fowler of 1926, who, it is argued, ignored the evidence:


title: Singular they

text: "The Complete Plain Words" was originally written in 1948 by Ernest Gowers, a civil servant, in an attempt by the British civil service to improve "official English". A second edition, edited by Sir Bruce Fraser, was published in 1973. It refers to "they" or "them" as the "equivalent of a singular pronoun of common sex" as "common in speech and not unknown in serious writing " but "stigmatized by grammarians as usage grammatically indefensible. The book's advice for "official writers" (civil servants) is to avoid its use and not to be tempted by its "greater convenience", though "necessity may eventually force it into the category of accepted idiom".


title: Singular they

text: A new edition of "Plain Words", revised and updated by Gowers's great-granddaughter, Rebecca Gowers, was published in 2014.


title: Singular they

text: It notes that singular "they" and "them" have become much more widespread since Gowers' original comments, but still finds it "safer" to treat a sentence like 'The reader may toss their book aside' as incorrect "in formal English", while rejecting even more strongly sentences like


title: Singular they

text: "The Times Style and Usage Guide" (first published in 2003 by "The Times" of London) recommends avoiding sentences like


title: Singular they

text: "The Cambridge Guide to English Usage" (2004, Cambridge University Press) finds singular "they" "unremarkable":


title: Singular they

text: as "scrambled syntax that people adopt because they cannot bring themselves to use a singular pronoun".


title: Singular they

text: "New Hart's Rules" (Oxford University Press, 2012) is aimed at those engaged in copy editing, and the emphasis is on the formal elements of presentation including punctuation and typeface, rather than on linguistic style, although – like "The Chicago Manual of Style" – it makes occasional forays into matters of usage. It advises against use of the purportedly gender-neutral "he", and suggests cautious use of "they" where "he or she" presents problems.


title: Singular they

text: The 2011 edition of the "New International Version Bible" uses singular "they" instead of the traditional "he" when translating pronouns that apply to both genders in the original Greek or Hebrew. This decision was based on research by a commission that studied modern English usage and determined that singular "they" ("them"/"their") was by far the most common way that English-language speakers and writers today refer back to singular antecedents such as "whoever", "anyone", "somebody", "a person", "no one", and the like."


title: Singular they

text: The British edition of "The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing", modified in some respects from the original US edition to conform to differences in culture and vocabulary, preserved the same recommendations, allowing singular "they" with semantically plural terms like "everyone" and indeterminate ones like "person", but recommending a rewrite to avoid.


title: Singular they

text: The Australian "Federation Press Style Guide for Use in Preparation of Book Manuscripts" recommends "gender-neutral language should be used", stating that use of "they" and "their" as singular pronouns is acceptable.


title: Singular they

text: "The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language" discusses the prescriptivist argument that "they" is a plural pronoun and that the use of "they" with a singular "antecedent" therefore violates the rule of agreement between antecedent and pronoun, but takes the view that "they", though "primarily" plural, can also be singular in a secondary "extended" sense, comparable to the purportedly extended sense of "he" to include female gender.


title: Singular they

text: Use of singular "they" is stated to be "particularly common", even "stylistically neutral" with antecedents such as "everyone", "someone", and "no one", but more restricted when referring to common nouns as antecedents, as in


title: Singular they

text: Use of the pronoun "themself" is described as being "rare" and "acceptable only to a minority of speakers", while use of the morphologically plural "themselves" is considered problematic when referring to "someone" rather than "everyone" (since only the latter implies a plural set).


title: Singular they

text: There are also issues of grammatical acceptability when reflexive pronouns refer to singular noun phrases joined by "or", the following all being problematic:


title: Singular they

text: "Among younger speakers", use of singular "they" even with definite noun-phrase antecedents finds increasing acceptance, "sidestepping any presumption about the sex of the person referred to", as in:


title: Singular they

text: "Notional agreement" is the idea that some uses of "they" might refer to a grammatically singular antecedent seen as semantically plural:


title: Singular they

text: According to "notional agreement", in the Shakespeare quotation "a mother" is syntactically singular, but stands for all mothers; and in the Shaw quotation "no man" is syntactically singular (taking the singular form "goes"), but is semantically plural ("all" go [to kill] not to be killed), hence idiomatically requiring "they". Such use, which goes back a long way, includes examples where the sex is known, as in the above examples.


title: Singular they

text: They are typically marked in English by words like "each", "every" and "any". The simplest examples are applied to groups of two, and use words like "either" and "or" – "Would you like tea or coffee?". Since distributive constructions apply an idea relevant to each individual in the group, rather than to the group as a whole, they are most often conceived of as singular, and a singular pronoun is used:


title: Singular they

text: However, many languages, including English, show ambivalence in this regard. Because distribution also requires a group with more than one member, plural forms are sometimes used.


title: Singular they

text: The singular "they", which uses the same verb form that plurals do, is typically used to refer to an indeterminate antecedent, for example:


title: Singular they

text: In some sentences, typically those including words like "every" or "any", the morphologically singular antecedent does not refer to a single entity but is "anaphorically linked" to the associated pronoun to indicate a set of pairwise relationships, as in the sentence:


title: Singular they

text: Linguists like Steven Pinker and Rodney Huddleston explain sentences like this (and others) in terms of bound variables, a term borrowed from logic. Pinker prefers the terms "quantifier" and "bound variable" to "antecedent" and " pronoun". He suggests that pronouns used as "variables" in this way are more appropriately regarded as homonyms of the equivalent referential pronouns.


title: Singular they

text: The following shows different types of anaphoric reference, using various pronouns, including "they":


title: Singular they

text: A study of whether "singular "they"" is more "difficult" to understand than gendered pronouns ("In Search of Gender Neutrality: Is Singular "They" a Cognitively Efficient Substitute for Generic "He"?" by Foertsch and Gernsbacher) found that "singular "they" is a cognitively efficient substitute for generic "he" or "she", particularly when the antecedent is nonreferential" (e.g. "anybody", "a nurse", or "a truck driver") rather than referring to a specific person (e.g. "a runner I knew" or "my nurse"). Clauses with singular "they" were read "just as quickly as clauses containing a gendered pronoun that matched the stereotype of the antecedent" (e.g. "she" for a nurse and "he" for a truck driver) and "much more quickly than clauses containing a gendered pronoun that went against the gender stereotype of the antecedent".


title: Singular they

text: On the other hand, when the pronoun "they" was used to refer to known individuals ("referential antecedents, for which the gender was presumably known", e.g. "my nurse", "that truck driver", "a runner I knew"), reading was slowed when compared with use of a gendered pronoun consistent with the "stereotypic gender" (e.g. "he" for a specific truck driver).


title: Singular they

text: The study concluded that "the increased use of singular "they" is not problematic for the majority of readers".


title: Singular they

text: The singular and plural use of "they" can be compared with the pronoun "you", which had been both a plural and polite singular, but by about 1700 replaced "thou" for singular referents. For "you", the singular reflexive pronoun ("yourself") is different from its plural reflexive pronoun ("yourselves"); with "they" one can hear either "themself" or "themselves" for the singular reflexive pronoun.


title: Singular they

text: Singular "they" has also been compared to nosism (such as the "royal we"), when a single person uses first-person plural in place of first-person singular pronouns. Similar to singular "you", its singular reflexive pronoun ("ourself") is different from the plural reflexive pronoun ("ourselves").


title: Singular they

text: While the pronoun set derived from "it" is primarily used for inanimate objects, "it" is frequently used in an impersonal context when someone's identity is unknown or established on a provisional basis, e.g. "Who is "it"?" or "With this new haircut, no one knows "it" is me." "It" is also used for infants of unspecified gender but may be considered dehumanizing and is therefore more likely in a clinical context. Otherwise, in more personal contexts, the use of "it" to refer to a person might indicate antipathy or other negative emotions.


title: Singular they

text: "It" can also be used for non-human animals of unspecified sex, though "they" is common for pets and other domesticated animals of unspecified sex, especially when referred to by a proper name (e.g. "Rags", "Snuggles"). Normally, birds and mammals with a known sex are referred to by their respective male or female pronoun ("he" and "she"; "him" and "her").


title: Buttocks

text: The buttocks (singular: buttock) are two rounded portions of the exterior anatomy of most mammals, located on the posterior of the pelvic region. In humans, the buttocks are located between the lower back and the perineum. They are composed of a layer of exterior skin and underlying subcutaneous fat superimposed on a left and right gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles. The two gluteus maximus muscles are the largest muscles in the human body. They are responsible for movements such as straightening the body into the upright (standing) posture when it is bent at the waist; maintaining the body in the upright posture by keeping the hip joints extended; and propelling the body forward via further leg (hip) extension when walking or running. In the seated position, the buttocks bear the weight of the upper body and take that weight off the feet.


title: Buttocks

text: In many cultures, the buttocks play a role in sexual attraction. Many cultures have also used the buttocks as a primary target for corporal punishment, as the buttocks' layer of subcutaneous fat offers protection against injury while still allowing for the infliction of pain. There are several connotations of buttocks in art, fashion, culture and humor. The English language is replete with many popular synonyms that range from polite colloquialisms ("posterior", "backside" or "bottom") to vulgar slang ("arse," "ass," "bum," "butt," "booty," "prat").


title: Buttocks

text: The buttocks are formed by the masses of the gluteal muscles or "glutes" (the gluteus maximus muscle and the gluteus medius muscle) superimposed by a layer of fat. The superior aspect of the buttock ends at the iliac crest, and the lower aspect is outlined by the horizontal gluteal crease. The gluteus maximus has two insertion points: superior portion of the linea aspera of the femur, and the superior portion of the iliotibial tractus. The masses of the gluteus maximus muscle are separated by an intermediate intergluteal cleft or "crack" in which the anus is situated.


title: Buttocks

text: The buttocks allow primates to sit upright without needing to rest their weight on their feet as four-legged animals do. Females of certain species of baboon have red buttocks that blush to attract males. In the case of humans, females tend to have proportionally wider and thicker buttocks due to higher subcutaneous fat and proportionally wider hips. In humans they also have a role in propelling the body in a forward motion and aiding bowel movement.


title: Buttocks

text: Some baboons and all gibbons, though otherwise fur-covered, have characteristic naked callosities on their buttocks. While human children generally have smooth buttocks, mature males and females have varying degrees of hair growth, as on other parts of their body. Females may have hair growth in the gluteal cleft (including around the anus), sometimes extending laterally onto the lower aspect of the cheeks. Males may have hair growth over some or all of the buttocks.


title: Buttocks

text: Depending on the context, exposure of the buttocks in non-intimate situations can cause feelings of embarrassment or humiliation, and embarrassment or amusement in an onlooker (see pantsing). Willfully exposing one's own bare buttocks as a protest, a provocation, or just for fun is called mooning.


title: Buttocks

text: In many punitive traditions, the buttocks are a common target for corporal punishment, which can be meted out with no risk of long-term physical harm compared with the dangers of applying it to other parts of the body, such as the hands, which could easily be damaged. Within the Victorian school system in England, the buttocks have been described as "the place provided by nature" for this purpose. A modern-day example can be seen in some Southeast Asian countries, such as Singapore. Caning in Singapore is widely used as a form of judicial corporal punishment, with male convicts being sentenced to a caning on their bare buttocks.


title: Buttocks

text: In Western and some other cultures, many comedians, writers and others rely on the buttocks as a source of amusement, camaraderie and fun. There are numerous colloquial terms for the buttocks.


title: Buttocks

text: In American English, phrases use the buttocks or synonyms (especially "butt" and "ass") as a synecdoche or pars pro toto for a whole person, often with a negative connotation. For example, terminating an employee may be described as "firing his ass". One might say "move your ass" or "haul ass" as an exhortation to greater haste or urgency. Expressed as a function of punishment, defeat or assault becomes "kicking one's ass". Such phrases also may suggest a person's characteristics, e.g. difficult people are termed "hard asses". In the US, an annoying person or any source of frustration may be termed "a pain in the ass" (a synonym for "a pain in the neck"). People deemed excessively puritanical or proper may be termed "tight asses" (in Australia and New Zealand, "tight arse" refers to someone who is excessively miserly).


title: Buttocks

text: Certain physical dispositions of the buttocks—particularly size—are sometimes identified, controversially, as a racial characteristic (see race). A famous example was the case of Saartjie Baartman, the so-called "Hottentot Venus".


title: Buttocks

text: The Latin name for the buttocks is "nates" (English pronunciation , classical pronunciation "nătes" ) which is plural; the singular, "natis" (buttock), is rarely used. There are many colloquial terms to refer to them, including:


title: Buttocks

text: The 1880s were well known for the fashion trend among women called the bustle, which made even the smallest buttocks appear huge. The popularity of this fashion is shown in the famous Georges Seurat painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" in the two women to the far left and right. Like long underwear with the ubiquitous "butt flap" (used to allow baring only the bottom with a simple gesture, as for hygiene), this clothing style was acknowledged in popular media such as cartoons and comics for generations afterward.


title: Buttocks

text: More recently, the cleavage of the buttocks is sometimes exposed by some women, deliberately or accidentally, as fashion dictated trousers be worn lower, as with hip-hugger pants.


title: Buttocks

text: An example of another attitude in an otherwise hardly exhibitionist culture is the Japanese fundoshi.


title: Elf

text: An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "light elves" and "dark elves". The dark elves create new blond hair for Thor's wife Sif after Loki had shorn off Sif's long hair.


title: Elf

text: In medieval Germanic-speaking cultures, elves generally seem to have been thought of as beings with magical powers and supernatural beauty, ambivalent towards everyday people and capable of either helping or hindering them. However, the details of these beliefs have varied considerably over time and space and have flourished in both pre-Christian and Christian cultures.


title: Elf

text: Sometimes elves are, like dwarfs, associated with craftmanship. Wayland the Smith embodies this feature. He is known under many names, depending on the language in which the stories were distributed. The names include "Völund" in Old Norse, "Wēland" in Anglo-Saxon and "Wieland" in German. The story of Wayland is also to be found in the "Prose Edda".


title: Elf

text: The word "elf" is found throughout the Germanic languages and seems originally to have meant 'white being'. However, reconstructing the early concept of an elf depends largely on texts written by Christians, in Old and Middle English, medieval German, and Old Norse. These associate elves variously with the gods of Norse mythology, with causing illness, with magic, and with beauty and seduction.


title: Elf

text: After the medieval period, the word "elf" tended to become less common throughout the Germanic languages, losing out to alternative native terms like "Zwerg" ('dwarf') in German and "huldra" ('hidden being') in North Germanic languages, and to loan-words like "fairy" (borrowed from French into most of the Germanic languages). Still, beliefs in elves persisted in the early modern period, particularly in Scotland and Scandinavia, where elves were thought of as magically powerful people living, usually invisibly, alongside everyday human communities. They continued to be associated with causing illnesses and with sexual threats. For example, several early modern ballads in the British Isles and Scandinavia, originating in the medieval period, describe elves attempting to seduce or abduct human characters.


title: Elf

text: With urbanisation and industrialisation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, beliefs in elves declined rapidly (though Iceland has some claim to continued popular belief in elves). However, elves started to be prominent in the literature and art of educated elites from the early modern period onwards. These literary elves were imagined as tiny, playful beings, with William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" being a key development of this idea. In the eighteenth century, German Romantic writers were influenced by this notion of the elf and re-imported the English word "elf" into the German language.


title: Elf

text: From the Romantic idea of elves came the elves of popular culture that emerged in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The "Christmas elves" of contemporary popular culture are a relatively recent creation, popularized during the late nineteenth century in the United States. Elves entered the twentieth-century high fantasy genre in the wake of works published by authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien; these re-popularised the idea of elves as human-sized and humanlike beings. Elves remain a prominent feature of fantasy media today.


title: Elf

text: From a scientific viewpoint, elves are not considered objectively real. However, elves have in many times and places been believed to be real beings. Where enough people have believed in the reality of elves that those beliefs then had real effects in the world, they can be understood as part of people's worldview, and as a social reality: a thing which, like the exchange value of a dollar bill or the sense of pride stirred up by a national flag, is real because of people's beliefs rather than as an objective reality. Accordingly, beliefs about elves and their social functions have varied over time and space.


title: Elf

text: Even in the twenty-first century, fantasy stories about elves have been argued both to reflect and to shape their audiences' understanding of the real world, and traditions about Santa Claus and his elves relate to Christmas.


title: Elf

text: Beliefs about elves have their origins before the conversion to Christianity and associated Christianization of northwest Europe. For this reason, belief in elves has, from the Middle Ages through into recent scholarship, often been labelled "pagan" and a "superstition." However, almost all surviving textual sources about elves were produced by Christians (whether Anglo-Saxon monks, medieval Icelandic poets, early modern ballad-singers, nineteenth-century folklore collectors, or even twentieth-century fantasy authors). Attested beliefs about elves, therefore, need to be understood as part of Germanic-speakers' Christian culture and not merely a relic of their pre-Christian religion. Accordingly, investigating the relationship between beliefs in elves and Christian cosmology has been a preoccupation of scholarship about elves both in early times and modern research.


title: Elf

text: Historically, people have taken three main approaches to integrate elves into Christian cosmology, all of which are found widely across time and space: