Source etymology 1
Original entry ↗A group of entities previously mentioned. · One whose gender is unknown, irrelevant, or both. · One who is nonbinary. · People; some people; people in general; someone, excluding the speaker.
A non-binary person.
The, those. · Their.
To refer to (someone, sometimes especially someone who does not use gender-neutral pronouns) using they/them pronouns.
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tóy Proto-Germanic *þai Proto-Norse *ᚦᚨᛁᛉ (*þaiʀ) Old Norse þeirbor. Middle English þei English they From Middle English þei, borrowed in the 1200s from Old Norse þeir, plural of the demonstrative sá which acted as a plural pronoun. Displaced native Middle English he from Old English hīe — which vowel changes had left indistinct from he (“he”) — by the 1400s, being readily incorporated alongside native words beginning with the same sound (the, that, this). Used as a singular pronoun since 1300, e.g. in the 1325 Cursor Mundi. The Norse term (whence also Icelandic þeir (“they”), Faroese teir (“they”), Danish de (“they”), Swedish de (“they”), Norwegian Nynorsk dei (“they”)) is from Proto-Germanic *þai (“those”) (from Proto-Indo-European *to- (“that”)), whence also Old English þā (“those”) (whence obsolete English tho), Scots thae, thai, thay (“they; those”), Swabian dia (“they”). The origin of the determiner they (“the, those”) is unclear. The OED, English Dialect Dictionary and Middle English Dictionary define it and its Middle English predecessor thei as a demonstrative determiner or adjective meaning “those” or “the”. This could be a continuation of the use of the English pronoun they's Old Norse etymon þeir as a demonstrative meaning “those”, but the OED and EDD say it is limited to southern, especially southwestern, England, specifically outside the region of Norse contact.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
- Inherited-form mentionþeienm
- Derivation mentionþeirnon
- Non-cognate comparisonheenm
- Non-cognate comparisonhīeang
- Cognate mentionþeiris · they
- Cognate mentionteirfo · they
- Cognate mentiondeda · they
- Cognate mentiondesv · they
- Cognate mentiondeinn · they
- Derivation mention*þaigem-pro · those
- Derivation mention*sóine-pro
- Cognate mentionþāang · those
- Cognate mentionthaesco
- Cognate mentiondiaswg · they
This page abbreviates 2 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "etymon",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": ":inh",
"3": "enm:þei<id:they>",
"id": "pronoun",
"tree": "1"
},
"expansion": "Etymology tree\nProto-Indo-European *tóy\nProto-Germanic *þai\nProto-Norse *ᚦᚨᛁᛉ (*þaiʀ)\nOld Norse þeirbor.\nMiddle English þei\nEnglish they\n[Appendix:Glossary#loanword|Borrowed]] from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"id\" : \"they\", \"children\" : [ { \"terms\" : [ { \"id\" : \"they\", \"children\" : [ { \"terms\" : [ { \"id\" : \"they\", \"children\" : [ { \"terms\" : [ { \"id\" : \"they\", \"children\" : [ ], \"status\" : \"missing\", \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Indo-European\", \"term\" : \"*tóy\", \"lang\" : \"ine-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Germanic\", \"term\" : \"*þai\", \"lang\" : \"gem-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Norse\", \"term\" : \"*ᚦᚨᛁᛉ\", \"lang\" : \"gmq-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Old Norse\", \"term\" : \"þeir\", \"lang\" : \"non\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"bor\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Middle English\", \"term\" : \"þei\", \"lang\" : \"enm\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"they\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }\" data-id=\"pronoun\" data-lang=\"en\" data-title=\"they\" id=\"English:_pronoun\">"
},
{
"name": "dercat",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro"
},
"expansion": ""
},
{
"name": "langname",
"args": {
"1": "ine-pro"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Indo-European"
},
{
"name": "word",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine",
"3": "só"
},
"expansion": ""
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "þei"
},
"expansion": "Middle English þei"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "non",
"3": "þeir"
},
"expansion": "Old Norse þeir"
},
{
"name": "ncog",
"args": {
"1": "enm",
"2": "he"
},
"expansion": "Middle English he"
},
{
"name": "ncog",
"args": {
"1": "ang",
"2": "hīe"
},
"expansion": "Old English hīe"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "is",
"2": "þeir",
"t": "they"
},
"expansion": "Icelandic þeir (“they”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "fo",
"2": "teir",
"t": "they"
},
"expansion": "Faroese teir (“they”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "da",
"2": "de",
"t": "they"
},
"expansion": "Danish de (“they”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "sv",
"2": "de",
"t": "they"
},
"expansion": "Swedish de (“they”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "nn",
"2": "dei",
"t": "they"
},
"expansion": "Norwegian Nynorsk dei (“they”)"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gem-pro",
"3": "*þai",
"t": "those"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Germanic *þai (“those”)"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*só",
"4": "*to-",
"5": "that"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *to- (“that”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "ang",
"2": "þā",
"t": "those"
},
"expansion": "Old English þā (“those”)"
},
{
"name": "dbt",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "tho",
"notext": "1"
},
"expansion": "tho"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "sco",
"2": "thae"
},
"expansion": "Scots thae"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "swg",
"2": "dia",
"t": "they"
},
"expansion": "Swabian dia (“they”)"
},
{
"name": "etymon",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": ":inh",
"3": "enm:þei<id:they>",
"id": "pronoun",
"tree": "1"
},
"expansion": "Etymology tree\nProto-Indo-European *tóy\nProto-Germanic *þai\nProto-Norse *ᚦᚨᛁᛉ (*þaiʀ)\nOld Norse þeirbor.\nMiddle English þei\nEnglish they"
}
],
"links": [
[
"*tóy",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/tóy#Proto-Indo-European:_they"
],
[
"*þai",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/þai#Proto-Germanic:_they"
],
[
"*ᚦᚨᛁᛉ",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Norse/ᚦᚨᛁᛉ#Proto-Norse:_they"
],
[
"þeir",
"þeir#Old_Norse:_they"
],
[
"þei",
"þei#Middle_English:_they"
],
[
"þei",
"þei#Middle_English"
],
[
"þeir",
"þeir#Old_Norse"
],
[
"sá",
"sá#Old_Norse"
],
[
"he",
"he#Middle_English"
],
[
"hīe",
"hie#Old_English"
],
[
"he",
"he#Middle_English"
],
[
"the",
"the#English"
],
[
"that",
"that#English"
],
[
"this",
"this#English"
],
[
"þeir",
"þeir#Icelandic"
],
[
"teir",
"teir#Faroese"
],
[
"de",
"de#Danish"
],
[
"de",
"de#Swedish"
],
[
"dei",
"dei#Norwegian_Nynorsk"
],
[
"*þai",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/þai"
],
[
"*to-",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/só"
],
[
"þā",
"þa#Old_English"
],
[
"tho",
"tho#English"
],
[
"thae",
"thae#Scots"
],
[
"thai",
"thai#Scots"
],
[
"thay",
"thay#Scots"
],
[
"dia",
"dia#Swabian"
],
[
"they",
"they#English"
],
[
"thei",
"thei#Middle_English"
],
[
"they",
"they#English"
],
[
"þeir",
"þeir#Old_Norse"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "pron",
"glosses": [
"A group of entities previously mentioned.",
"One whose gender is unknown, irrelevant, or both.",
"One who is nonbinary.",
"People; some people; people in general; someone, excluding the speaker."
],
"tags": [
"nominative",
"plural",
"singular",
"sometimes",
"third-person",
"usually",
"indefinite",
"pronoun"
],
"recordId": "864381b7f538fb9b073ba36f1af3e1a5d74e1897641a73de561984a06b7394d0",
"rawRecordSha256": "6c0f7fda7f4ce636480d1c88fa114b2b42313c0209355bfcff4b1b03c4513cd3",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 24548
},
{
"pos": "noun",
"glosses": [
"A non-binary person."
],
"tags": [
"derogatory",
"informal",
"offensive",
"sometimes"
],
"recordId": "da8f67c9a115b69fed447af1b5b8ff62332c6d50809e409641753357f5db5133",
"rawRecordSha256": "d2ab8e9eb5891f812f301a26ce5daf4c720ecb1015fa6eacf6f2b321aa149067",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 24551
},
{
"pos": "det",
"glosses": [
"The, those.",
"Their."
],
"tags": [
"Southern-England",
"dialectal",
"nonstandard",
"US"
],
"recordId": "e13827ce1aecd11535e3836840cd6d7c98b0f824166985877ed62012fe13c9ee",
"rawRecordSha256": "93dcf2805ec83477105f53f7a16c7be3709dbca3481df76e152d48610cdf1768",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 24549
},
{
"pos": "verb",
"glosses": [
"To refer to (someone, sometimes especially someone who does not use gender-neutral pronouns) using they/them pronouns."
],
"tags": [
"transitive"
],
"recordId": "fb4a6291d4707fc1859c655b085807b21bb5311751860acb9e763c05cfecf8dc",
"rawRecordSha256": "3ca37cd34a5f534f2907717963e95df76ffca81d9f3b313c17b717a629d0bd9b",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 24550
}
],
"omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
"templates": 0,
"links": 0,
"references": 0,
"descendants": 0,
"lexicalRecords": 0,
"lexicalSenses": 2,
"glosses": 0
}
}