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