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/ɛɹ/ · determiner
(rare, nonstandard) Belonging to em, gender-neutral third-person singular possessive adjective, equivalent to the singular their and coordinate with his and her..
“You idiot girl! Are you childsick?” She grabbed Asu’s wrist; Asu made no effort to twist away. “Sand and soil, tell me you’re not pregnant. Is it that—what’s eir name? Aeran? Have you lain with em? Tell me!” […] Empre waded out to help them cross the last stretch. More people, a few hundred, perhaps, had gathered along the shore. One of them came running at Melu with a cry—she threw up her arms in defense. But it was Aeran, only Aeran. E seized Asu and clasped her close, eir eyes closed tightly as e sobbed eir relief.
Eir sentences would sound smoother since ey wouldn’t clutter them with the old sexist pronouns. And if ey should trip up in the new usage, ey would only have emself to blame.
A person whose habit is to stand and walk splay-footed may *think* eir feet are straight ahead, when they are actually pointed only slightly less out.
If a mobile user is far from eir home area, ey will pay a long-distance fee for carriage of the call *from* eir home area, just as a caller would pay long-distance on a call *to* that area.
The adult worries much less; is cautious, sensible and knows how to protect emself and eir system from attack and error.
And ultimately: I think my readers are mature enough that knowing eir assigned gender is not going to give them an “excuse” to misgender em.
Use eir when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Eir means (rare, nonstandard) Belonging to em, gender-neutral third-person singular possessive adjective, equivalent to the singular their and coordinate with his and her..
The closest synonym depends on the sentence and intended sense.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
“You idiot girl! Are you childsick?” She grabbed Asu’s wrist; Asu made no effort to twist away. “Sand and soil, tell me you’re not pregnant. Is it that—what’s eir name? Aeran? Have you lain with em? Tell me!” […] Empre waded out to help them cross the last stretch. More people, a few hundred, perhaps, had gathered along the shore. One of them came running at Melu with a cry—she threw up her arms in defense. But it was Aeran, only Aeran. E seized Asu and clasped her close, eir eyes closed tightly as e sobbed eir relief.
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