The dictionary folk at Merriam-Webster last week named “they” as word of the year, and not simply in its singular sense — Merriam-Webster helpfully noted that the singular “they” has been “used for this purpose for over 600 years” — but also in its nonbinary sense, as a third-person pronoun used by people who are gender-nonconforming. The editors also noted that in 2019 “they” look-ups on the company’s search site increased 313 percent over the year before.
