xe
Language: English
Part of speech: pron
Pronunciation: enpr: zē
enpr: hē
enpr: ksē
ipa: /ziː/
ipa: /hiː/
ipa: /ksiː/
enpr: zē
enpr: hē
enpr: ksē
ipa: /zi/
ipa: /hi/
ipa: /ksi/
rhymes: -iː
homophone: he
homophone: z
Forms: form: xem
form: xyrself
form: xirself
form: xemself
form: xyr
form: xir
form: xer
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).
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 1992, Jim Sinclair, “If you could choose...”, in Jim Sinclair's Web Site, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2003:
text: 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.
ref: 1993 September 14, Jim Sinclair, “Re: Jim and Steve's snoring discussion”, in bit.listserv.autism (Usenet), message-ID <AUTISM%93091417074261@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>:
text: 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; […]
ref: 1999 April 28, Dagmar Alpen, “Re: Think of a small tribe of people...”, in talk.politics.libertarian (Usenet), message-ID <7g74qb$8sq$1@rzsun02.rrz.uni-hamburg.de>:
text: Since xe went to the trouble of re-posting, I figured it was about something of more than usual importance to hir... I wrote to EmGee privately and xe said yes, that was one of the things xe was talking about.
ref: 2000 December 11, Mary Ellen Curtin, “Silencing and ad hominem attacks”, in alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated (Usenet), message-ID <074d01c06393$c1a2fb00$5be9cfcf@default>:
text: 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.
ref: 2002 March 3, Ken von Mattell, “Re: Newbie...not quite sure yet...”, in alt.suicide.holiday (Usenet), message-ID <rif48uc0ja9q3km9o2jf167d4u4o3qpk1k@4ax.com>:
text: 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.
ref: 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
glosses: they (singular). Gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun, coordinate with gendered pronouns he and she.
Synonyms: word: they
word: e
word: ey
word: sie
word: ze
word: per
Hyponyms: he
she