Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m curious to learn: if “they” is being added to style guides as a way to refer to a singular human without implying any gender, is “it” the same or is there a somewhat different meaning behind the usage?
> if “they” is being added to style guides as a way to refer to a singular human without implying any gender Hasn’t it always been the case that you could use “they” as a way to refer to a singular human without implying any gender? I seem to recall that “they” has been in use in that manner long before non-binary arguments were something I’d heard about.
Here's an article with details [1].
The problem of what pronoun to use for someone who is neither male or female is not new, of course. That article says:
> There have always been people who didn’t conform to an expected gender expression, or who seemed to be neither male nor female. But we’ve struggled to find the right language to describe these people—and in particular, the right pronouns. In the 17th century, English laws concerning inheritance sometimes referred to people who didn’t fit a gender binary using the pronoun it, which, while dehumanizing, was conceived of as being the most grammatically fit answer to gendered pronouns around then
[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/singular-nonbi...