Groups | Search | Server Info | Login | Register
Groups > comp.os.linux.misc > #74785
| From | vallor <vallor@cultnix.org> |
|---|---|
| Newsgroups | comp.os.linux.misc |
| Subject | "They" (was: Re: Floppies) |
| Date | 2025-09-21 23:12 +0000 |
| Message-ID | <mjbf2bFilmsU2@mid.individual.net> (permalink) |
| References | (17 earlier) <mj96uoF6b1iU3@mid.individual.net> <10aod61$1jd5c$7@dont-email.me> <wwv7bxsdvtw.fsf@LkoBDZeT.terraraq.uk> <10aogfp$1jd5c$11@dont-email.me> <g1YzQ.195$x62b.22@fx11.iad> |
On Sun, 21 Sep 2025 19:06:52 GMT, Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid>
wrote in <g1YzQ.195$x62b.22@fx11.iad>:
> On 2025-09-21, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
>> On 21/09/2025 10:00, Richard Kettlewell wrote:
>>
>>> Bringing Þ back would be good. I’d like to see some of the older
>>> pronouns (thou for singular ‘you’, yit and wit for ‘you two’ and ‘we
>>> two’) return to common use too.
>>
>> Oh goodness. Don't start suggesting any more NewPronouns...
>
> Actually, I think we need some new pronouns, so that we can keep
> existing ones intact. I'm especially referring, of course, to "they" -
> which I will never accept as anything but third person plural. (Yes,
> existing workarounds are awkward, e.g. "he/she" - someone once suggested
> "s/h/it".)
"Oh Mighty ChatGPT":
For how long has "they" been used as a genderless singular pronoun?
The singular “they” has a surprisingly long history — it isn’t just a
modern invention.
Early Usage (14th century onward)
The first recorded examples of “they” used with a singular antecedent
appear in Middle English in the late 1300s. Writers like Geoffrey Chaucer
(e.g. The Canterbury Tales) used it naturally when the gender of a person
was unknown. Shakespeare, Austen, and the King James Bible all include
singular they.
Example from Shakespeare (Hamlet, 1599):
"There's not a man I meet but doth salute me
As if I were their well-acquainted friend."
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
For more information, consult your local dict(1) reference.
Sidenote: English dictionaries _report_ on the usage of English;
they aren't rulebooks. So, use English however you like, but don't
expect other English speakers to respect it.
> We could really use a third-person singular genderless pronoun.
We have one: "they".
ObLinux:
DICT(1) DICT(1)
NAME
dict - DICT Protocol Client
SYNOPSIS
dict word
dict [options] [word]
dict [options] dict://host:port/d:word:database
dict [options] dict://host:port/m:word:database:strategy
DESCRIPTION
dict is a client for the Dictionary Server Protocol
(DICT), a TCP transaction based query/response protocol
that provides access to dictionary definitions from a
set of natural language dictionary databases. Exit sta‐
tus is 0 if operation succeeded, or non-zero otherwise.
See EXIT STATUS section.
--
-v System76 Thelio Mega v1.1 x86_64 NVIDIA RTX 3090Ti 24G
OS: Linux 6.16.8 D: Mint 22.2 DE: Xfce 4.18
NVIDIA: 580.82.09 Mem: 258G
"I thought I was mistaken but I was mistaken."
Back to comp.os.linux.misc | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar
Re: Floppies Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2025-09-19 20:01 +0000
Re: Floppies "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-19 23:04 +0200
Re: Floppies Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2025-09-20 12:39 +0000
Re: Floppies The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-20 16:46 +0100
Re: Floppies "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-20 20:30 +0200
Re: Floppies rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-21 02:37 +0000
Re: Floppies Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-09-21 05:01 +0000
Re: Floppies rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-21 06:26 +0000
Re: Floppies Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2025-09-22 07:04 +0200
Tomato joke. "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-21 15:24 +0200
Re: Floppies Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2025-09-21 14:09 +0000
Re: Floppies rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-21 18:36 +0000
Translations "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-21 22:00 +0200
Re: Translations The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-21 21:32 +0100
Re: Translations rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-22 01:16 +0000
Re: Translations The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-22 13:42 +0100
Re: Floppies Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-21 22:57 +0100
Re: Floppies John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-09-22 08:35 -0700
Re: Floppies Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-09-20 12:15 +0200
Re: Floppies Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2025-09-20 14:43 +0000
Re: Floppies The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-20 16:27 +0100
Re: Floppies Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-09-20 17:46 +0000
Re: Floppies Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-09-20 11:12 -0700
Re: Floppies rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-20 18:36 +0000
Re: Floppies Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-09-20 15:28 -0700
Re: Floppies Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-20 19:05 +0100
Re: Floppies rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-21 02:41 +0000
Re: Floppies The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-21 09:32 +0100
Re: Floppies Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-21 10:00 +0100
Re: Floppies The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-21 10:28 +0100
Re: Floppies Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-09-21 19:06 +0000
"They" (was: Re: Floppies) vallor <vallor@cultnix.org> - 2025-09-21 23:12 +0000
Re: "They" (was: Re: Floppies) Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-09-22 01:38 +0000
Re: "They" (was: Re: Floppies) rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-22 07:57 +0000
Re: "They" Pancho <Pancho.Jones@protonmail.com> - 2025-09-22 09:31 +0100
Re: "They" Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-09-22 08:47 -0700
Re: "They" Pancho <Pancho.Jones@protonmail.com> - 2025-09-23 08:03 +0100
Re: "They" Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-09-23 09:23 -0700
Re: "They" The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-23 17:37 +0100
Re: "They" rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-24 02:44 +0000
Re: "They" rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-24 02:34 +0000
Re: "They" The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-22 13:46 +0100
Re: "They" rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-22 18:22 +0000
Re: "They" ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) - 2025-09-22 13:49 +0000
Re: "They" Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-09-22 17:22 +0000
Re: "They" rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-22 18:21 +0000
Re: "They" "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-22 22:00 +0200
Re: "They" Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-09-22 15:19 -0700
Re: "They" Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-09-23 00:07 +0000
Re: "They" rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-23 02:52 +0000
Re: Floppies rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-21 17:48 +0000
Re: Floppies Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-09-21 11:13 -0700
Re: Floppies The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-21 20:14 +0100
Re: Floppies Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-09-21 20:30 +0000
Re: Floppies Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-09-21 13:50 -0700
Re: Floppies Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-09-22 01:38 +0000
Re: Floppies The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-22 13:43 +0100
Re: Floppies Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-09-22 17:22 +0000
Re: Floppies rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-22 19:23 +0000
Re: Floppies "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-22 22:02 +0200
Re: Floppies Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-09-23 00:07 +0000
Re: Floppies Allodoxaphobia <trepidation@example.net> - 2025-09-25 17:07 +0000
Re: Floppies Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-09-21 19:06 +0000
Lingua franca "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-21 15:35 +0200
Re: Lingua franca rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-21 17:58 +0000
Re: Lingua franca The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-21 19:12 +0100
Re: Lingua franca "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-21 22:09 +0200
Re: Lingua franca Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-09-21 19:06 +0000
Re: Lingua franca "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-21 22:07 +0200
Re: Floppies Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2025-09-21 13:35 +0000
Re: Floppies Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-09-23 16:16 +0200
Re: Floppies rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-20 18:22 +0000
Re: Floppies "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-20 20:54 +0200
Re: Floppies Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2025-09-21 14:24 +0000
Re: Floppies Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> - 2025-09-21 11:11 +0000
Re: Floppies "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-09-21 15:28 +0200
Re: Floppies Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-09-23 16:17 +0200
Re: Floppies Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-23 15:56 +0100
Re: Floppies ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) - 2025-09-23 15:21 +0000
Re: Floppies rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-23 18:35 +0000
Re: Floppies Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-09-23 21:39 +0000
Re: Floppies rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-24 04:05 +0000
Re: Floppies Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-09-24 05:06 +0000
Re: Floppies The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-24 11:37 +0100
Re: Floppies Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-09-24 16:53 +0000
Re: Floppies The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-24 18:14 +0100
Re: Floppies rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-25 00:19 +0000
Re: Floppies Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-09-25 19:31 +0000
Re: Floppies Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-09-24 00:28 +0100
Re: Floppies rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-09-24 04:07 +0000
Re: Floppies Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-09-23 18:23 +0000
csiph-web