Is there a single neutral word......

[Kernel Crittenden]

I decline to play a part in their delusions.

 

[WR Moore]

I recall something in Readers Digest from decades ago. A guy working as a janitor in an office answered a knock on the door. An attractive young lady introduced herself as "the telephone man" and said she was there on a service call. He replied "I'm the cleaning lady, come on in."

I was reading something on this in the dentists waiting room over the problem the non-English speaking folks have. The media was also wringing their hands over it. IIRC, the major issue was over Latina/Latino and the currently preferred reference is Latinz.

I think entirely too many people have too much time on their hands. Perhaps they could devote some of the time they spend on such trivia to keeping track of their kids and knowing who their friends are and what they're up to.

 

[sigp220.45]

TV has all the answers.

They, theirs, them:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3grwz2dlW4[/ame]

Mild language warning.

This is one more thing that fails to make my get-all-bent-about list. There are all kinds of people in the world. I'll call them what they like.

(Great show, by the way. Damien Lewis has been Dick Winters in Band Of Brothers, Nick Brody in Homeland, and now Bobby Axelrod in Billions, not to mention Henry VIII in Wolf Hall)

 

[Doug M.]

I have a few options coming to mind, but the point total would be pleasant and I have not yet been suspended.

 

[Chubbo]

Is there a single neutral word for he/she in the English language? You could just say, 'they' but that is plural when you are writing about an either/or situation.

You language, Etymology, grammar experts help me out here.

It seems to me that the old words thee and thou cover a lot of ground but I'm not sure it's the best.

ex. If a man or woman is qualified, then XXX must fill out a a form.

Is 'they' accepted to work in this situation?

I don't mind using he or she once or twice in a report, but dang, there must be a better way.

Help, please

rwsmith:

I don't think that there is a feasible answer to your question, one that would be acceptable to the members of our society today. The old "Tried And True" method of determining gender, where one merely turned the "one" in question, upside down, to observe their "Physical Plumbing", certainly would not be accepted by members of today's society. Today one is, what one wants to be, not what, " One, they, It, the, Boy, Girl, s/he" really is. Well, as usual, I have probably managed to get myself into trouble, but I wanted to offer my 2¢ worth to the matter in question.

Chubbo

 

[Golddollar]

At least our language is gender-neutral. French and Italian would be a bit easier to learn if everything didn't need to be preceded by a masculine or feminine descriptive term.

German is even worse. It has 3 types of gender designations of the definite article before a noun, which don't have to match the actual quality of the thing or person the noun represents. Multiply that by 4 cases and you have 12 situations in which you have to pick the correct German word for "the."

 

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

Don't need the points myself, but someone ought to be able to work something out of she/he/it.

 

[TX-Dennis]

When I was in college back in the stone age we were taught that he was the only proper usage for a mixed gender pronoun.

Things have gotten a mite complicated since then.

 

[mmaher94087]

To the original question; I'd use "either". Either party needs to fill in the form.

 

[Chuck24]

The masculine is also the proper gender neutral term and the -man at the end of various professions means person.

 

[Absalom]

....I am deeply troubled by the "they" that I see used by young people - I don't know whether they're using it because they're ignorant or because they are snowflakes who were taught by idiots, but neither choice makes me happy.
..

Before being too judgmental, one should consult authoritative sources, or there is the risk of any harsh judgments bouncing back on oneself.

To quote Merriam-Webster, certainly more authoritative than the commonly accepted misconception that seems to dominate this thread:

"We will note that they has been in consistent use as a singular pronoun since the late 1300s; that the development of singular they mirrors the development of the singular you from the plural you, yet we don't complain that singular you is ungrammatical; and that regardless of what detractors say, nearly everyone uses the singular they in casual conversation and often in formal writing."

So forget about "young people".

 

[Erich]

Your quotation of Merriam-Webster's blog posting (not the dictionary itself) is duly noted, as is the blog's disclaimer that "Words We're Watching talks about words we are increasingly seeing in use but that have not yet met our criteria for entry."

 

[HARDWARE]

i was about to post the genderless description i often use. but thought bettre of it.

 

[rwsmith]

Clumsy but doable

Where Bellevue College's students were formerly asked to check male or female they are now given a list of modern choices including "undecided." By the time we were 18 we had looked down.

Here's a grammar question that does not involve modern ideas of what's acceptable.

Example: Yesterday a member posted a rumor that the owner of Registered Magnum #1, who's condition is unknown, turned down $250,000.

What word replaces who's for an inanimate object?

....Registered Magnum, of which the condition is unknown.

 

[DWalt]

There are no longer any policemen, firemen, or mailmen.

 

[rwsmith]

"They" meeeeeeh..

'They is usable' but it feels like one of those things that got accepted due to the world changing faster than the language. Though it may be gender free, it's also plural and you are talking about one individual. Kind of 'forced'.

It's almost like one of those things people accept as proper, even though it isn't.

You know, I shouldn't worry about this because the world will still turn. But I just wanted to voice my displeasure at said 'world;

Like Mammy said in 'Gone With the Wind'

"It ain't fittin', It ain't fittin'...........It ain't fittin'"

 

[two-bit cowboy]

Example: Yesterday a member posted a rumor that the owner of Registered Magnum #1, who's condition is unknown, turned down $250,000.

What word replaces who's for an inanimate object?

Who's wasn't correct in any sense. It is the contraction of "who is." Whose would have been correct, but it would have referred to the owner, not the RM.

... the owner of Registered Magnum #1, condition unknown, turned down....

 

[bushmaster1313]

I know myself to be a refined individual/person who likes to eat, shoot, fish, sleep and buy guns
For some unknown reason my wife is convinced I'm a typical male

 

[yaktamer]

Where Bellevue College's students were formerly asked to check male or female they are now given a list of modern choices including "undecided." By the time we were 18 we had looked down.

Here's a grammar question that does not involve modern ideas of what's acceptable.

Example: Yesterday a member posted a rumor that the owner of Registered Magnum #1, who's condition is unknown, turned down $250,000.

What word replaces who's for an inanimate object?

"condition of which" -- but the premise upon which your question is based is flawed; it would be "whose." Who's = who is

 

[bushmaster1313]

This is way too funny

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah49lN1S93U"]This is too funny[/ame]