English

Pronoun

xyr

1. (nonstandard, possessive) Belonging to xe, their (singular). Gender-neutral third-person singular possessive adjective, coordinate with his and her.
   • 1993 September 14, Sinclair, Jim, “Re: Jim and Steve's snoring discussion”, in bit.listserv.autism, Usenet, message-ID <AUTISM%93091417074261@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>:

     Telepathy would require that you share the other person's knowledge of xyr own mind, which in turn requires recognizing that xe is actually aware of what xe's thinking, which is incompatible with psychiatry.

   • 1999 April 28, Alpen, Dagmar, “Re: Think of a small tribe of people...”, in talk.politics.libertarian, Usenet, message-ID <7g74qb$8sq$1@rzsun02.rrz.uni-hamburg.de>:

     Now full ownership in the modern sense... implies four rights of the owner: 1. The right to decide what xe does with xyr property; 2. the right to decide what others do with xyr property; […]

   • 2010 November 5, Rhoads, Kevin G., “Re: Spam in the group.”, in openwatcom.users.fortran, Usenet, message-ID <4CD469A3.3985E10C@alum.mit.edu>:

     There's no central authority, and each server administrator owns xyr own server sets xyr own policy. Each server administrator sets xyr own policy for honouring cancel messages, too.

   This is xyr book.

2. (nonstandard, personal, chiefly Internet) The form of xe used after a preposition or as the object of a verb; that woman, that ship, etc; similar usage to him/her.
   • 1996 September 12, Russo, Thomas, “Re: Intelligent Women are an endangered Species”, in soc.singles, Usenet, message-ID <RUSSO.96Sep12163146@slug.swcp.com>:

     As far as I'm concerned the constitution should be re-written so that anyone capable of being elected is ushered into a hidden room upon inauguration, where a secret panel of the Illuminati (preferably one chaired by me) beat xyr to death with blunt instruments and replace xyr by a Stepford Politician.

   Give it to xyr (after preposition)

   I wrote xyr an e-mail (indirect object)

   I haven't met xyr (direct object)

Synonyms

• (singular) their
• (neologism) eir, hir

Hyponyms

• his, her

See also

• other attested and proposed gender-neutral pronouns