xe

English

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xe (pronoun)

Wikipedia

Etymology

Apparently independently invented by several people, including Don Rickter (the pronoun appeared in the Unitarian Universalist publication UU World on 1 May 1973 and Mario Pei gave Rickter credit on page 145 of his 1978 book Weasel Words).

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: zē, hē, ksē, IPA^(key): /ziː/, /hiː/, /ksiː/
• (US) enPR: zē, hē, ksē, IPA^(key): /zi/, /hi/, /ksi/
• Rhymes: -iː
• Homophones: he, z

Pronoun

xe (third-person singular, gender-neutral, nominative case, oblique xem, reflexive xyrself, possessive xyr)

1. (nonstandard) they (singular). Gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun, coordinate with gendered pronouns he and she.
   • 1992, Jim Sinclair, “If you could choose...”, in Jim Sinclair's Web Site‎, archived from the original on 3 November 2003:

     Anyone I would be interested in would have to be a pretty special person. I wouldn't want to miss out on knowing such a person just because xe happened to be the "wrong" sex.

   • 1993 September 14, Jim Sinclair, “Re: Jim and Steve's snoring discussion”, in bit.listserv.autism‎ (Usenet), message-ID <AUTISM%[email protected]>:

     Telepathy would require that you share the other person's knowledge of xyr own mind, which in turn requires recognizing that xe is actually aware of what xe's thinking, which is incompatible with psychiatry.

   • 1999 April 28, Dagmar Alpen, “Re: Think of a small tribe of people...”, in talk.politics.libertarian‎ (Usenet), message-ID <[email protected]>:

     Now full ownership in the modern sense... implies four rights of the owner: 1. The right to decide what xe does with xyr property; 2. the right to decide what others do with xyr property; […]

   • 2000 December 11, Mary Ellen Curtin, “Silencing and ad hominem attacks”, in alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated‎ (Usenet), message-ID <074d01c06393$c1a2fb00$5be9cfcf@default>:

     Since xe went to the trouble of re-posting, I figured it was about something of more than usual importance to hir... I wrote to EmGee privately and xe said yes, that was one of the things xe was talking about.

   • 2002 March 3, Ken von Mattell, “Re: Newbie...not quite sure yet...”, in alt.suicide.holiday‎ (Usenet), message-ID <[email protected]>:

     I mean, suppose there's someone who can't leave the house because xe's all tied up with counting tiles in the bathroom all day, and if xe manages to get done with that, there's the stove to check again and again ... you get the idea.

   • 2023, Aimee Ogden, “A Half-Remembered World”, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol. 145, no. 1-2, whole no. 768 (July/August 2023), pages 146-202

     The soft blue sky had the feel of a good omen. In Xir old age, the god moved slower every year; lingering in the shallows long after the last fish had been swallowed up by nets. Sometimes Xe stood still for days, in sight of the shore, as if Xe had not quite decided whether to beach Xemself for good. Let Xem only survive long enough to spawn a new god! Else Xir helpless people would be godless ans stranded in the haunted dryland where the dead cities slept. Where less kindly deities roamed.

Usage notes

• Xe normally uses third-person singular conjugations, unlike singular they: xe is, xe does, xe has, etc. (Contrast they are, they do, they have.)

Declension

• Subject: xe (or xhe)
• Object: xem (or xer)
• Possessive: xyr or xir (or xis or xer) (or xeir)
• Reflexive: xyrself or xirself (perhaps rarely xemself or hirself or xerself)

Synonyms

• (singular) they
• (neologism) e, ey, sie, ze, per

Hyponyms

• he, she

See also

• Appendix:English third-person singular pronouns

Anagrams

• -ex, ex, ex-, ex.

Catalan

Alternative forms

• che (superseded)

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Valencian)

Interjection

xe

1. (Valencia) hey

Derived terms

• terra del xe

Further reading

• “xe” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “xe” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “xe”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “xe” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Cypriot Arabic

Etymology

Inherited from Arabic أَخَذَ (ʔaḵaḏa).

Verb

xe I (present pkyaxo)

1. to take
2. to catch fire

References

• Borg, Alexander (2004) A Comparative Glossary of Cypriot Maronite Arabic (Arabic–English) (Handbook of Oriental Studies; I.70), Leiden and Boston: Brill, page 137

Drehu

Etymology

Compare Xaragure sa (“hit”).

Verb

xe

1. smack

References

• Claire Moyse-Faurie, Constructions expressing middle, reflexive and reciprocal situations in some Oceanic languages, in Reciprocals and Reflexives: Theoretical and Typological Explorations

Ewe

Adjective

xe

1. hoarse

Noun

xe

1. bird

Verb

xe

1. to block so that it is not possible to pass / to prevent (something or someone) from passing
2. to catch (a ball)
3. to fill, to make full
4. to seal, to prevent people or vehicles from crossing (something) or to close (it) securely to prevent leakage

Ido

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kse/, /ksɛ/

Noun

xe (plural xe-i)

1. The name of the Latin script letter X/x.

See also

• (Latin script letter names) litero; a, be, ce, che, de, e, fe, ge, he, i, je, ke, le, me, ne, o, pe, que, re, se, she, te, u, ve, we, xe, ye, ze ^{(Category: io:Latin letter names)}

Middle English

Pronoun

xe

1. (chiefly southern East Midland dialectal) Alternative form of sche

Old Tupi

Alternative forms

• che (obsolete)

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Tupi-Guarani *t͡ʃe (“I, me”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɛ/
• Rhymes: -ɛ
• Hyphenation: xe

Pronoun

xe (2nd class, 1st person singular, dative xebe, 1st class ixé)

1. (before adjectives) I, me
2. my, mine

Derived terms

Descendants

• Nheengatu: se

See also

References

Further reading

• Eduardo de Almeida Navarro (2013) “xe”, in Dicionário de tupi antigo: a língua indígena clássica do Brasil (in Portuguese), 1 edition, São Paulo: Global, →ISBN, page 202, column 1

Paipai

Noun

xe

1. pot, kettle

Venetian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈze/

Verb

xe

1. third-person singular present indicative of èser
2. third-person plural present indicative of èser

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key):
• (Huế) IPA^(key):
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key):

Etymology 1

Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 車 (“vehicle”, SV: xa). Compare hè and hạ, chè and trà.

Noun

(classifier chiếc; con) xe • (車)

1. wheeled vehicle (except for airplanes)

   Synonym: xế

   đậu xe ― to park

   lái xe ― to pilot a wheeled vehicle other than planes or trains; to drive, to ride, etc.

Usage notes

This term includes steam trains (xe lửa) in Southern Vietnam but not in Northern Vietnam, where they are classified as tàu (tàu hỏa).

Derived terms

Descendants

• Tai Dam: ꪵꪎ

Noun

(classifier con) xe • (車)

1. (xiangqi) chariot, a piece labeled with the characters 車／车 (xa, black) and 俥／伡 (red)
2. (by extension, chess) rook

See also

Chess pieces in Vietnamese · quân cờ vua (layout · text)
vua	hậu	xe, xa	tượng, tịnh	mã	tốt, chốt

Etymology 2

Adjective

xe

1. (obsolete) many