Singular 'they' is voted Word of the Decade by U.S. linguists

By Barbara Goldberg

 

FILE PHOTO: Women march during a protest as a part of the #MeToo movement on International Women's Day in Seoul, South Korea, March 8, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo

 

(Reuters) - U.S. linguists on Friday chose "they" as their Word of the Decade, recognising the growing use of third-person plural pronouns as a singular form to refer to people who identify their gender as neither entirely male nor entirely female.

 

Separately, the American Dialect Society bestowed its Word of the Year honours on the increasingly common practice of introducing oneself in correspondence or socially by the set of pronouns one prefers to be called by - declaring in an email, for example, "pronouns: she/her."

 

The two awards were decided by some 350 member of the society at its annual meeting of academics, graduate students and word lovers who voted by a show of hands, said Ben Zimmer, a linguist and lexicographer who chairs the group's New Words Committee.

 

The most popular pick for Word of the Year was "(my) pronouns," a reflection of "how the personal expression of gender identity has become an increasing part of our shared discourse," the society said in a statement announcing the outcome.

 

The same trend was behind the selection of "they" as the Word of the Decade, recognising its growing use to refer to a person whose gender identity is non-binary. The singular use of "they" was previously designated as the 2015 Word of the Year.

 

"People want to choose something that stands the test of time and sums up the decade as a whole," said Zimmer, who writes a language column for the Wall Street Journal.

 

Social media has turbo-charged the way words or phrases become popular, leading to some recent multi-word champions for Word of the Year, including "tender-age shelter" (a detention facility for young undocumented migrant children separated from their parents) in 2018 and "fake news" in 2017.

 

Other decade nominees considered on Friday included:

 

- "#BlackLivesMatter," the hashtag used to protest alleged disparities in police use of force against African Americans.

- "Climate," reflecting increased interest in the impact of climate change.

 

- "#MeToo," the movement that has highlighted widespread patterns of sexual abuse and harassment that women have faced at the hands of men across many spheres of life, including business, politics and entertainment.

 

The society, founded in 1889 and dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, started selecting its "Word of the Year" in 1991 and since then has picked only two other "Word of the Decade" winners. Top choices were "web" for the 1990s and "Google" as a verb for the 2000s.

 

Other "Word of the Year" nominations for 2019 included:

 

- "OK Boomer," described as a retort to someone older, typically a member of the Baby Boom generation, who expresses views that are out-of-touch or condescending to young people and their concerns.

 

- "Cancel," meaning to withdraw support from someone or something that is considered problematic or unacceptable, used in the phrase "cancel culture."

 

- "Karen," the stereotype of a complaining, self-important, demanding white woman, typically a member of Generation X or "Generation Karen."

 

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York; Editing by David Gregorio, Steve Gorman and Sandra Maler)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-01-04

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"Pathetic".

yes indeed woksterism...emanating from the ivory towers of university professors with too much time on their hands,really sad.

They have linguists in America? 

With 7+ billion people all talking together via internet, it's exceedingly hard to find anything to distinguish oneselves.

 

"They" be cray cray. While I like to think of myself as an advocate for LGBT civil rights, I'm afraid I'm gonna need to take the "OK boomer" exemption on this one. If I knew someone personally that insisted that I use they then I guess I would but really I'm not feeling this.

cunning linguists

Seems they are discriminating against zim, zur, and the other 70 recognised pronouns.

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

If I knew someone personally that insisted that I use they then I guess I would but really I'm not feeling this.

Not a friend of Sam Smith then; that's where I first read this <deleted>: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-49688123

Edited January 4, 20206 yr by Salerno

2 hours ago, JetsetBkk said:

They have linguists in America? 

There are linguists in North, South and Central America.  Seems though geography teachers were lacking where you were educated.

2 hours ago, thasoss said:

yes indeed woksterism...emanating from the ivory towers of university professors with too much time on their hands,really sad.

As a book editor, this is something I have to deal with on a pretty regular basis, and pronouns are taken seriously by many, but I wouldn't expect the topic to be of much interest to the crowd at this forum!

2 minutes ago, Cory1848 said:

As a book editor, this is something I have to deal with on a pretty regular basis, and pronouns are taken seriously by many, but I wouldn't expect the topic to be of much interest to the crowd at this forum!

Dude...what can they say?

6 minutes ago, Cory1848 said:

As a book editor, this is something I have to deal with on a pretty regular basis, and pronouns are taken seriously by many, but I wouldn't expect the topic to be of much interest to the crowd at this forum!

Taken seriously by many, but the many are still few.

2 hours ago, JetsetBkk said:

They have linguists in America? 

I think that they have cunning linguists

48 minutes ago, Salerno said:

Not a friend of Sam Smith then; that's where I first read this <deleted>: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-49688123

I'd be happy to be his friend but I think he should keep his shirt on in public.

 

BTW I recently heard that this movement has spread to the Spanish speaking world so I assume other languages as well.

 

I would use it to be polite.

Edited January 4, 20206 yr by Jingthing

3 hours ago, rooster59 said:

OK Boomer," described as a retort to someone older, typically a member of the Baby Boom generation, who expresses views that are out-of-touch or condescending to young people and their concerns.

Ah huh...

Whatever our race, sexual preferences, nationality, etc, we've never been all so fundamentally similar, hence the creativity and obsession for all sorts of identities.

 

Announcing your pronouns... how vain and self-important is that. 

Kind of argues with anatomy........or are they going to re-write that, too?

6 minutes ago, Traubert said:

Kind of argues with anatomy........or are they going to re-write that, too?

that's the idea....no more male/female,no more recognition of biological fact,what the feeling is between the ears is now the driving factor.

A troll post has been removed

1 hour ago, TEFLKrabi said:

Taken seriously by many, but the many are still few.

Yes, in the grand scheme of things, definitely a minority!

3 hours ago, rabas said:

With 7+ billion people all talking together via internet, it's exceedingly hard to find anything to distinguish oneselves.

Ourselves are able to do that now. ???? 

I guess that will make future official reports difficult. Like: They attacked us. And then we fought back.

Perhaps they should research when decades end and new ones begin.

They is a bunch of idiots.

The first and only time I've encountered "they" used as described here is when watching the Netflix series, Billions.

 

I'll be honest, I didn't realize it was a real thing in the real world.

Edited January 4, 20206 yr by Caldera

It's not a "real thing" but sadly it is a "thing". The west is on a downward spiral IMO.

Edited January 4, 20206 yr by Salerno

8 hours ago, JetsetBkk said:

They have linguists in America? 

We have may cunning linguists on TVF......

I guess this is because 'they' don't want to referred to as 'it'. 

My word for the decade is not allowed on the forum, But I say it every time I read nonsense like the article in the OP.

 

Why is the world so determined to be a mockery of itself.

Professing to be be wise, they became fools.

Edited January 4, 20206 yr by canuckamuck