# xe
## English
### Etymology

Apparently independently invented by several people, including Don Rickter. The pronoun appeared in the Unitarian Universalist publication UU World on May 1, 1973, and Mario Pei gave Rickter credit on page 145 of his book Weasel Words (1978).

### Pronunciation

* (UK) enPR: zē, hē, ksē, IPA: /ziː/, /hiː/, /ksiː/
* (US) enPR: zē, hē, ksē, IPA: /zi/, /hi/, /ksi/
* Rhymes: -iː
* Homophones: he, z

### Pronoun

xe (third-person singular, gender-neutral, nominative case, oblique xem, reflexive xyrself, possessive xyr)
* (nonstandard) they (singular). Gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun, coordinate with gendered pronouns he and she.
** 1992, Jim Sinclair, “If you could choose...”, in Jim Sinclair's Web Site‎, archived from the original on 3 November 2003:Anyone I would be interested in would have to be a pretty special person. I wouldn't want to miss out on knowing such a person just because xe happened to be the "wrong" sex.
** 1993 September 14, Jim Sinclair, “Re: Jim and Steve's snoring discussion”, in bit.listserv.autism‎ (Usenet), message-ID <AUTISM%93091417074261@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>:Telepathy would require that you share the other person's knowledge of xyr own mind, which in turn requires recognizing that xe is actually aware of what xe's thinking, which is incompatible with psychiatry.
** 1999 April 28, Dagmar Alpen, “Re: Think of a small tribe of people...”, in talk.politics.libertarian‎ (Usenet), message-ID <7g74qb$8sq$1@rzsun02.rrz.uni-hamburg.de>:Now full ownership in the modern sense... implies four rights of the owner: 1. The right to decide what xe does with xyr property; 2. the right to decide what others do with xyr property; […]
** 2000 December 11, Mary Ellen Curtin, “Silencing and ad hominem attacks”, in alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated‎ (Usenet), message-ID <074d01c06393$c1a2fb00$5be9cfcf@default>:Since xe went to the trouble of re-posting, I figured it was about something of more than usual importance to hir... I wrote to EmGee privately and xe said yes, that was one of the things xe was talking about.
** 2002 March 3, Ken von Mattell, “Re: Newbie...not quite sure yet...”, in alt.suicide.holiday‎ (Usenet), message-ID <rif48uc0ja9q3km9o2jf167d4u4o3qpk1k@4ax.com>:I mean, suppose there's someone who can't leave the house because xe's all tied up with counting tiles in the bathroom all day, and if xe manages to get done with that, there's the stove to check again and again ... you get the idea.
** 2023, Aimee Ogden, “A Half-Remembered World”, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol. 145, no. 1-2, whole no. 768 (July/August 2023), pages 146-202
    The soft blue sky had the feel of a good omen. In Xir old age, the god moved slower every year; lingering in the shallows long after the last fish had been swallowed up by nets. Sometimes Xe stood still for days, in sight of the shore, as if Xe had not quite decided whether to beach Xemself for good. Let Xem only survive long enough to spawn a new god! Else Xir helpless people would be godless ans stranded in the haunted dryland where the dead cities slept. Where less kindly deities roamed.

#### Usage notes

* Xe normally uses third-person singular conjugations, unlike singular they: xe is, xe does, xe has, etc. (Contrast they are, they do, they have.)

#### Declension

* Subject: xe (or xhe)
* Object: xem (or xer)
* Possessive: xyr or xir (or xis or xer) (or xeir)
* Reflexive: xyrself or xirself (perhaps rarely xemself or hirself or xerself)

#### Synonyms

* (singular) they
* (neologism) e, ey, sie, ze, per

#### Hyponyms

* he, she

#### See also

* Appendix:English third-person singular pronouns

### Anagrams

* EX, -ex, ex-, ex., ex

## Catalan
### Alternative forms

* che (superseded)

### Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Valencia) [ˈt͡ʃe]

### Interjection

xe
* (Valencia) hey

#### Derived terms

* terra del xe

### Further reading

* “xe” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
* “xe” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
* “xe”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
* “xe” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

## Cypriot Arabic
### Etymology

Inherited from Arabic أَخَذَ (ʔaḵaḏa).

### Verb

xe I (present pkyaxo)
* to take
* to catch fire

### References

* Borg, Alexander (2004) A Comparative Glossary of Cypriot Maronite Arabic (Arabic–English) (Handbook of Oriental Studies; I.70), Leiden and Boston: Brill, page 137

## Drehu
### Etymology

Compare Xârâgurè sa (“hit”).

### Verb

xe
* smack

### References

* Claire Moyse-Faurie, Constructions expressing middle, reflexive and reciprocal situations in some Oceanic languages, in Reciprocals and Reflexives: Theoretical and Typological Explorations

## Ewe
### Adjective

xe
* hoarse

### Noun

xe
* bird

### Verb

xe
* to block so that it is not possible to pass / to prevent (something or someone) from passing
* to catch (a ball)
* to fill, to make full
* to seal, to prevent people or vehicles from crossing (something) or to close (it) securely to prevent leakage

## Ido
### Etymology

From x +‎ -e.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kse/, /ksɛ/

### Noun

xe (plural xe-i)
* The name of the Latin script letter X/x.

#### See also

* Latin script letter names: literi: a · be · ce · che · de · e · fe · ge · he · i · je · ke · le · me · ne · o · pe · que · re · se · she · te · u · ve · we · xe · ye · ze

## Middle English
### Pronoun

xe
* (chiefly southern East Midland dialectal) Alternative form of sche

## Old Tupi
### Alternative forms

* che (obsolete)

### Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Tupi-Guarani *t͡ʃe (“I, me”).
* Anambé ha
* Apiaká si
* Aurá he
* Chané ‘tʃe
* Emerillon dʒe
* Guaraní che
* Kayabí je
* Urubú-Kaapor he
* Xetá će
* Xingú Asuriní dže

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈʃɛ/
* Rhymes: -ɛ
* Hyphenation: xe

### Pronoun

xe (2nd class, 1st person singular, dative xebe / xebo, 1st class equivalent ixé)
* I, me
* my, mine

#### Derived terms

* xebe
* xebo
* xepoxepy

#### Descendants

* Nheengatu: se

### See also

| Person | Number | Nominative／Accusative | Nominative／Accusative | Nominative／Accusative | Possessive | Possessive | Dative | Dative | Objective |
| Person | Number | Subject | 1st class | 2nd class | Nonreflexive | Reflexive | 1st class | 2nd class | Objective |
| Singular | 1st | | ixé | xe | xe | xe | ixébe／ixébo | xebe／xebo |
| Singular | 2nd | îepé | endé | nde | nde | nde | endébe／endébo | ndebe／ndebo | oro- |
| Singular and Plural | 3rd | | a'e | i | i | o | i xupé | i xupé |
| Plural | 1st exc | | oré | oré | oré | oré | orébe／orébo | orébe／orébo |
| Plural | 1st inc | | îandé | îandé | îandé | îandé | îandébe／îandébo | îandébe／îandébo |
| Plural | 2nd | peîepé | peẽ | pe | pe | pe | peẽme／peẽmo | peẽme／peẽmo | opo- |
| Plural | Indefinite | | asé | asé | asé | asé | asébe／asébo | asébe／asébo |

### References

* ↑ Antônio Augusto Souza Mello (2000 March 17) “Reconstruções Lexicais e Cognatos” (chapter III), in Estudo histórico da família linguística tupi-guarani: aspectos fonológicos e lexicais (in Portuguese), Florianópolis: UFSC, page 200, line 3

### Further reading

* Eduardo de Almeida Navarro (2013) “xe”, in Dicionário de tupi antigo: a língua indígena clássica do Brasil [Dictionary of Old Tupi: The Classical Indigenous Language of Brazil] (overall work in Portuguese), São Paulo: Global, →ISBN, page 202, column 1

## Paipai
### Noun

xe
* pot, kettle

## Venetan
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈze/

### Verb

xe
* third-person singular present indicative of èser
* third-person plural present indicative of èser

## Vietnamese
### Pronunciation

* (Hà Nội) IPA: [sɛ˧˧]
* (Huế) IPA: [sɛ˧˧]
* (Saigon) IPA: [sɛ˧˧]
* Audio (Hà Nội):(file)

### Etymology 1

Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 車 (“vehicle”, SV: xa). Compare hè and hạ, chè and trà.

#### Noun

(classifier chiếc, con, cỗ) xe • (車)
* wheeled vehicle (except for airplanes)
    Synonym: xế
    đậu xe ― to park
    lái xe ― to pilot a wheeled vehicle other than planes or trains; to drive, to ride, etc.

##### Usage notes

* This term includes steam trains (xe lửa) in Southern Vietnam but not in Northern Vietnam, where they are classified as tàu (tàu hỏa).

##### Derived terms

* bánh xe
* bằng lái xe
* bến xe
* bến xe buýt
* cỗ xe
* dấu xe ngựa
* đẩy xe
* giấy phép lái xe
* gọng xe
* hòm xe
* kẹt xe
* lái xe
* loại từ vòng gửi xe
* lơ xe
* ngựa xe như nước
* nhà xe
* nhíp xe
* phu xe
* ruột xe
* say xe
* thùng xe
* toa xe
* tông xe
* trạm xe lửa
* xe ba bánh
* xe ba gác
* xe bán tải
* xe ben
* xe bình bịch
* xe bò
* xe bọc thép
* xe buýt
* xe ca
* xe cải tiến
* xe cam nhông
* xe cam-nhông
* xe cấp cứu
* xe chữa cháy
* xe cộ
* xe công nông
* xe cúp
* xe cút kít
* xe cứu hỏa
* xe cứu thương
* xe dây
* xe du lịch
* xe dù
* xe đạp
* xe đạp bánh béo
* xe đẩy hàng
* xe điện
* xe điện ngầm
* xe đò
* xe đòn
* xe độc mã
* xe gắn máy
* xe gíp
* xe goòng
* xe hai bánh
* xe hàng
* xe hoa
* xe hỏa
* xe hòm
* xe hon đa
* xe Honda
* xe hơi
* xe hương
* xe kéo
* xe khách
* xe lai
* xe lai sạc điện
* xe lam
* xe lăn
* xe lăn đường
* xe lôi
* xe lội nước
* xe lu
* xe lửa
* xe lửa cao tốc
* xe máy
* xe mô tô
* xe mô-tô
* xe ngựa
* xe nôi
* xe ô-tô
* xe ôm
* xe pháo
* xe rác
* xe rùa
* xe song mã
* xe tải
* xe tang
* xe tay
* xe tắc xi
* xe tắc-xi
* xe tăng
* xe thiết giáp
* xe thổ mộ
* xe thư
* xe trượt tuyết
* xe tứ mã
* xe tưới đường
* xe ủi đất
* xe vận tải
* xe xích lô
* xuống xe

##### Descendants

* → Tai Dam: ꪵꪎ

#### Noun

(classifier con) xe • (車)
* (xiangqi) chariot, a piece labeled with the characters 車 / 车 (xa, black) and 俥 / 伡 (red)
* (by extension, chess) rook

##### See also

Chess pieces in Vietnamese · quân cờ vua (layout · text) :
| vua | hậu | xe, xa | tượng, tịnh | mã | tốt, chốt |

#### Verb

xe
* (colloquial, uncommon) to transport using a wheeled vehicles

### Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

#### Verb

xe
* to spin small threads into a big one
    xe chỉ ― to spin into threads
    xe tơ ― to spin into silk
** (literary) to make something big from small ones
    xe cát ― to make a big pile of sand
** (literary) to bring two people together in marriage
    kết tóc xe tơ ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

### Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

#### Noun

xe
* a pipe used to smoke makhorka or opium

#### Adjective

xe
* (Can we verify this sense?) (obsolete) many