em
pron/ɛm/
Etymology Coined by Christine M. Elverson by removing the "th" from them, perhaps influenced by the pre-existing em/'em, now often perceived as apheretic forms of them (though originally unrelated).
1
Gender neutral, Nonstandard, Objective, Rare, Third person A gender-neutral third-person singular object pronoun, the objective case of ey or e, equivalent to the singular them and coordinate with him and her.
- If the author uses such notation, it should be up to Em to indicate Eir intentions clearly, but there’s no harm checking first.1986 April 1, Michael Spivak, The Joy of TeX: A Gourmet Guide to Typesetting with the AMS-TeX macro package, Providence: American Mathematical Society, →ISBN, →LCCN, LCC Z253.4.T47 S673 1986, page 68:
- I may become quite intimate with someone, spend hours with em every night, and yet not have the slightest idea what eir voice sounds like, or what eir RL body looks, feels, and smells like.1997, Steven Shaviro, Doom Patrols : A Theoretical Fiction About Postmodernism, London: Serpent's Tail, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 138:
3 more examples
- E invites em to consider how ey represent emselves^([sic]), and in so doing, e focuses eir attention on the ethics that make human relations possible.2000, Jane Love, “Ethics, Plugged and Unplugged: The Pegagogy of Disorderly Conduct”, in James A. Inman, Donna N. Sewell, editors, Taking flight with OWLs: Examining Electronic Writing Center Work, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, LCC PE1414.T24 1999, page 193:
- And ultimately: I think my readers are mature enough that knowing eir assigned gender is not going to give them an “excuse” to misgender em.2011 March 15, RJ Edwards, “89: New Friend”, in Riot Nrrd, archived from the original on 30 May 2013:
- “You idiot girl! Are you childsick?” She grabbed Asu’s wrist; Asu made no effort to twist away. “Sand and soil, tell me you’re not pregnant. Is it that—what’s eir name? Aeran? Have you lain with em? Tell me!”2023, Aimee Ogden, “A Half-Remembered World”, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol. 145, no. 1-2, whole no. 768 (July/August 2023), pages 146-202
- Derived terms
- emself