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Singular "they" is the old English language. Generic "he" was codified by grammarians in the 18th century who wanted to make English more like Latin. But singul
by gruseom 15y ago
Singular "they" is the old English language. Generic "he" was codified by grammarians in the 18th century who wanted to make English more like Latin. But singular "they" never went away, and now it's making a move for the top spot. The interesting thing is that all the best writers, from Chaucer thru Shakespeare thru basically everyone you'd care to name, used singular "they" liberally in their writing. The idea that it's an improper or incorrect usage is nonsense and always was.
- tomp 15y agoReally? I didn't know that. By "old", I meant 15 years ago, when I first learned english. What exactly did the singular "they" mean? Same as "it", just for people?
- gruseom 15y agoYep. There are some examples in a previous comment I wrote (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3688820 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3688820), though I overstated the case about generic he there. Wikipedia has pre-18th century examples of that too, so it seems that both forms coexisted (in what proportion, I don't know). In any case, it's a mistake to imagine that singular they is an archaic form being revived now for political correctness. It has been in widespread use all along.