Merriam-Webster unveils its word of the year for 2019
Back in September, the Merriam-Webster dictionary added a new definition of the word "they," including its use "to refer to a single person whose gender identity is non-binary."
And now, "they" has just been chosen as Word of the Year for 2019.
The selection is described as "entirely date driven" in Merriam-Webster's official press release, with the word in question having to show "a significant increase in lookups over the previous year."
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It's not really a surprise that searches for "they" have gone up, either — back in March, singer Sam Smith opened up about being non-binary during an interview with Jameela Jamil, before going on to change their pronouns to "they/them" in September.
"After a lifetime of being at war with my gender I've decided to embrace myself for who I am, inside and out," wrote Smith. "I’m so excited and privileged to be surrounded by people that support me in this decision but I’ve been very nervous about announcing this because I care too much about what people think but fuck it!"
At the time of writing, Smith's post has been liked over 640,000 times.
“Pronouns are among the language's most commonly used words, and like other common words (think go, do, and have) they tend to be mostly ignored by dictionary users," Merriam-Webster's senior editor, Emily Brewster, said in a statement.
"But over the past year or so, as people have increasingly encountered the non-binary use, we've seen searches for they grow dramatically. In 2019 the increase in lookups for they was so significant and sustained that it stood out from all the other top lookups when we went to analyze the data.
“People were clearly encountering this new use and turning to the dictionary for clarity and for usage guidance."
It's that time of the year for dictionaries to release their annual word, with "existential," "climate strike," "climate emergency," and "cancel culture" claiming the title elsewhere as 2019 words of the year.
