thoroughly individuated singular they

[Neal Whitman]

I'm interested in when "transgender" got clipped to "trans," and when the retronym "cisgender" and corresponding adjective "cis" were coined. And does "trans" cover both transgender and transsexual?

Neal

> On Feb 19, 2014, at 12:46 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: thoroughly individuated singular they
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>> On Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 12:24 PM, Michael Newman wrote:
>>
>> My diss way back in the 1990s claimed that singular they added a generic
>> sense to the referent. This (NSFW) Savage Love column has a letter (the
>> third) where the writer's partner identifies as gender-neutral, and writer
>> uses a singular they  as in
>>
>> One of our favorite things to do is for me to _____ their___
>>
>> I leave this sentence incomplete for any delicate sensibilities.
>>
>> The usage sounds unnatural to me (but it would as it completely violates my
>> hypothesis) but so do the other pronouns proposed for non-cis-gender
>> identified people. Still, worth noting.
>>
>> http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=3D18915314
>
> Some interesting discussion of transgender pronominal usage on the
> Colbert Report last night with guest Janet Mock:
>
> http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/433117/february-18-2014/transgender-awareness---janet-mock
>
> (discussion of "they" around 1:30, "they" and other pronoun options at 3:50)
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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