themself: derivative reflexive form (nonstandard; now chiefly used instead of "himself or herself" as a reflexive epicenity for they in pronominal reference to a singular referent)[3]
By Chaucer's time the th- form has been adopted in London for the subject case only, whereas the oblique cases remain in their native form (hem, here < OEheom, heora). At the same period (and indeed before), Scots texts, such as Barbour's Bruce, have the th- form in all cases.
The development in Middle English is shown in the following table. At the final stage, it had reached its modern form.
Singular they is a use of they as an epicene (gender-neutral) pronoun for a singular referent.[7][8] In this usage, they follows plural agreement rules (they are, not *they is), but the semanticreference is singular. Unlike plural they, singular they is only used for people. For this reason, it could be considered to have personal gender. Some people refuse to use the epicene pronoun they when referring to individuals on the basis that it is primarily a plural pronoun instead of a singular pronoun.[9][10][11] However, the online edition of the Oxford English Dictionary records usage of they "referring to an individual generically or indefinitely", with examples dating to 2008–2009.[12]
Word of the year
In December 2019, Merriam-Webster chose singular they as word of the year. The word was chosen because "English famously lacks a gender-neutral singular pronoun to correspond neatly with singular pronouns like everyone or someone, and as a consequence they has been used for this purpose for over 600 years."[13]
Plural they's referents can be anything, including persons, as long as it does not include the speaker (which would require we) or the addressee(s) (which would require you). Singular they can only refer to individual persons. Until the end of the 20th century, this was limited to those whose gender is unknown (e.g., "Someone's here. I wonder what they want"; "That person over there seems to be waving their hands at us.").[14]
The pronoun they can also be used to refer to an unspecified group of people, as in "In Japan they drive on the left", or "They're putting in a new restaurant across the street." It often refers to the authorities, or to some perceived powerful group, sometimes sinister: "They don't want the public to know the whole truth."
