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Merriam-Webster‘s Words of the Year 2019 tops off with gender-neutral, singular “they”

By Filings on Fri, 12/13/19
Society & Culture
English
Preferred Pronouns

“English famously lacks a gender-neutral singular pronoun to correspond neatly with singular pronouns like everyone or someone, and as a consequence they has been used for this purpose for over 600 years. More recently, though, they has also been used to refer to one person whose gender identity is nonbinary, a sense that is increasingly common in published, edited text, as well as social media and in daily personal interactions between English speakers.” - Merriam-Webster

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Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.

(ESV, Proverbs 17:27)

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