Merriam-Webster Adds 'They' As A Nonbinary Pronoun In Vast New Dictionary Update
Merriam-Webster has added over 530 words to the dictionary, including several inclusive terminology such as nonbinary 'they'.
Oliver G. Alvar
Merriam-Webster just announced their vast vocabulary additions and revisions to their dictionary for this year, and the changes are indeed overwhelming. They include over 530 new words and meanings, and more than 4000 revisions to definitions, pronunciations, etymologies, and dates of first known use.
Among the new additions are 'free solo', 'fatberg', 'deep state', and 'they' as a nonbinary pronoun. And yes, conservatives were shockingly not happy about the latter.
The edition's highlights
Merriam-Webster themselves posted a few highlights of selected new words to their site, showcasing the incredible range that goes from the funny, like 'fatberg', to the socially serious, like 'inclusive' and the nonbinary pronoun. Here are some words from Merriam-Webster's own selection:
- Escape room: a game in which participants confined to a room or other enclosed setting are given a set amount of time to find a way to escape.
- Pickleball: a new court sport played with short-handled paddles and a perforated plastic ball.
- Free solo: a climb in which a rock climber uses no artificial aids for support and has no rope or other safety equipment for protection in case of a fall.
- Stinger: the name for short scene that appears during or after the closing credits of a movie.
- Aphantasia: the inability to form mental images.
- Autogenic training: a self-relaxation technique that involves repeating calming statements to yourself.
An inclusive edition
But the true highlight comes in the social inclusivity department, with Merriam-Webster fully embracing the use of an important set of words aimed at making the world better. Among these are:
- Bechdel test: refers to a set of criteria used to evaluate a movie or other work of fiction on the basis of its inclusion and representation of female characters.
- Inclusive: A new sense has been added: “allowing and accommodating people who have historically been excluded (as because of their race, gender, sexuality, or ability).”
- Colorism: prejudice or discrimination especially within a racial or ethnic group favoring people with lighter skin over those with darker skin.
And, of course, the big one,
- They: expanded to include this sense: “used to refer to a single person whose gender identity is nonbinary.” It's an expansion of a use that is sometimes called the “singular they” (and one that has a long history in English). When a reflexive pronoun corresponding to singular use of they is needed, themself is seeing increasing use.
Unsurprising backlash
Conservatives predictably went crazy as soon as Merriam-Webster made the announcement, heavily criticizing the move as politically biased. Yet, as the dictionary's senior editor Emily Brewster said to the Guardian, “Merriam-Webster does not try to be at the vanguard of change in the language. Over the past few decades, there has been so much evidence that this is a fully established use of ‘they’ in the English language. This is not new.”
Conservatives also seem suspiciously concerned about grammar, claiming that using "they" as a singular pronoun is outright incorrect, linguistically speaking. Merriam-Webster quickly addressed this criticism on their page:
"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, yeah. Right-wingers really have nothing going for them in this regard.
(Cover photo by Merriam-Webster)
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