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Non Gaming Discussions => Off-Topic => Topic started by: IronFist on September 09, 2001, 09:24:01 PM

Title: We need to make a word that means "he or she."
Post by: IronFist on September 09, 2001, 09:24:01 PM

Don\'t you think the English language has suffered long enough?  When I type reports or posts on forums, I often have to type he or she, or s/he, or she/he just to make sure the girls out there don\'t get mad.  I think it\'s time the English language got a word that means both he and she.  It would make writing a lot easier, and would eliminate the girl/boy differences (Isn\'t that what girls want?  Equality?).

So I have come up with a word that I think would be good to represent both sexes.  The word is "lhe."  (that\'s LHE.)  I just took the letter that is right in between the "h" in he and the "s" in she --> "L".

So what do you think?  Don\'t like it?  Then post a better one. :)  This he/she problem will be solved before this thread is over.

Title: We need to make a word that means "he or she."
Post by: Hawke on September 09, 2001, 10:16:20 PM

Lhe you say? Sounds an awful lot like "lee" when spoken out. I\'ve been pondering about this dilemma for some time too, but since I don\'t think I can come up with a word that the whole english speaking world would use, I haven\'t given it that much thought. I\'ve translated some software manuals into english from finnish, and this is one of those things that relentlessly bug me. In finnish, we have a word "hän", which means either "he" or "she". On the other hand, it would be nice to know the gender of the person in question, to save further inquiries.

The idea\'s good, but I\'m really not sure about "lhe" :p Not sure about any word, it\'s hard to come up with anything that sounds even remotely intelligent... hard for me at least, the army\'s done its job with reducing my brain into a dry raisin :p

Title: We need to make a word that means "he or she."
Post by: CygnusXI on September 10, 2001, 03:42:38 AM

There are plenty of words out there that can be used, just get creative:)

Users
Them
They
Players
Opponents
People
Folks

These, I just came up with in like 2 minutes. There are a bunch more, depending on the context of the sentence/paragraph.

Title: We need to make a word that means "he or she."
Post by: eNeMyTooTH on September 10, 2001, 03:54:09 AM

Sounds ok, Lee\'s my name :) So i\'ll be lead to thinking that everyone knows me.. :fro:

Title: We need to make a word that means "he or she."
Post by: Toxical on September 10, 2001, 04:10:16 AM

Well,... :D

On the funny side you can use:

sheeples
mofos

For real you could use:

they
people
them

Title: We need to make a word that means "he or she."
Post by: Eiksirf on September 10, 2001, 05:54:06 AM

Actually, when you should be using he or she (singular pronouns) it\'s incorrect to use people, they, etc (plural pronouns).

The accepted thing to do is to pick a pronoun and stick with it.  Different example?  Perfect time to switch the pronoun.  It\'s ok to use he for the first topic of your paper, only to switch to she later.  That shows fairness.

The generic pronoun for this case is "one," but because we don\'t use the term often, one might feel silly writing it.  Of course, if one\'s going for professionalism, he would probably go for it.

Oops, used he!  Here\'s how to get around it yet another way:

Of course, if one\'s going for professionalism, using the general pronoun would be a good choice.

See that?  You can get around it if you try.

-Eik

Title: We need to make a word that means "he or she."
Post by: Tetrad on September 10, 2001, 11:15:19 AM

Why don\'t you just write he and not worry about it. From what I\'ve noticed even girls say or write he more often than not from what I\'ve noticed anyway.

Title: We need to make a word that means "he or she."
Post by: THX on September 10, 2001, 11:36:46 AM

Because when you get to college there is a chance you will get a feminist English teacher that DESPISES when you use "he" as your default pronoun for males & females.

The only place you should worry about it is when writing essays, giving professional speeches or reports, or when your audience is 50/50 men/women.

Title: We need to make a word that means "he or she."
Post by: Falcon4 on September 10, 2001, 12:17:05 PM

how about,,,, it.


that what i call a biology teacher at my school who recently went form a girl to a guy. so people use "it" as the pronoun for the teacher.

works great.

and godamn does it look scary.:D

Title: We need to make a word that means "he or she."
Post by: on September 10, 2001, 12:21:50 PM

Like this???     F/M meaning female/male   :bounce:

Title: We need to make a word that means "he or she."
Post by: M4 on September 10, 2001, 04:27:16 PM

Hmm..

Well, as far as I\'m concerned, "bitch" and "perverted bastard" are effective ;)

Title: We need to make a word that means "he or she."
Post by: ben_high on September 10, 2001, 05:38:01 PM

shim........she/him:D:D:D

Title: We need to make a word that means "he or she."
Post by: IronFist on September 10, 2001, 09:47:05 PM

Quote

Originally posted by Eiksirf
Actually, when you should be using he or she (singular pronouns) it\'s incorrect to use people, they, etc (plural pronouns).

The accepted thing to do is to pick a pronoun and stick with it.  Different example?  Perfect time to switch the pronoun.  It\'s ok to use he for the first topic of your paper, only to switch to she later.  That shows fairness.

The generic pronoun for this case is "one," but because we don\'t use the term often, one might feel silly writing it.  Of course, if one\'s going for professionalism, he would probably go for it.

Oops, used he!  Here\'s how to get around it yet another way:

Of course, if one\'s going for professionalism, using the general pronoun would be a good choice.

See that?  You can get around it if you try.

-Eik

Thanks for the info Eiksirf.  I never realized there was already a word that meant both he and she.  I will probably use "one" from now on even if I do sound wierd saying it. :)  Either that or "mofo." :D

For the sake of continuing this thread, here is another possibility:

Gurl (guy + girl) :)

Title: We need to make a word that means "he or she."
Post by: Sublimesjg on September 10, 2001, 11:55:59 PM

i have a suggestion how about writing out the 5 letters total and be done with it i mean its not like those two words are gonna shear years off your life if you shorten em to one 5 letter word :P

sorry just thought that was kinda funny

Title: We need to make a word that means "he or she."
Post by: SmallLady on September 12, 2001, 01:49:41 AM

No-One should have a good suggestion...:p

I\'ve used "s/he".. but it\'s easier to just say "them" or "they"