Spivak pronoun

English

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Spivak pronoun

Etymology

Named after American mathematician Michael Spivak who used the pronouns E, Em, and Eir in the 1982 Book "The Joy of TeX".^[1] Spivak did not coin the pronoun set he used in the book.^[2]

Noun

Spivak pronoun (plural Spivak pronouns)

Any of a set of gender-neutral neopronouns occasionally used in English, formerly associated with the LambdaMOO online community.

References

^ Michael D. Spivak (1982) “Personal Pronoun Pronouncement”, in The Joy of TeX: A Gourmet Guide to Typesetting with the AMS-TeX Macro Package‎^[1], American Mathematical Society, published 1986, →ISBN, page xi:
But I hate having to say "he or she" or "his or her" or using awkward circumlocutions. Numerous approaches to this problem have been suggested, but one strikes me as particularly simple and sensible. Just as 'I' is the first person singular pronoun, regardless of gender, so 'E' will be used in this book as the third person singular pronoun for both genders. Thus, 'E' is the singular of 'they'. Accordingly, 'Eir' (pronounced to rhyme with 'their') will be the possessive, and 'Em' (rhyming with 'them') will stand for either 'him' or 'her'.
^ Barbara Beeton (2021) “Michael D. Spivak, 1940–2020”, in TUGboat‎^[2], volume 42, number 3, TeX User Group, archived from the original on 2021-11-18, retrieved 2024-11-29, page 226: “The Joy of TeX is special in a number of ways. […] Pronouns are gender-neutral — E, Em, Eir — but even though these are now called “Spivak pronouns”, when I asked, Mike [Michael Spivak] said he didn’t originate them.”

[1] Michael D. Spivak (1982) “Personal Pronoun Pronouncement”, in The Joy of TeX: A Gourmet Guide to Typesetting with the AMS-TeX Macro Package‎^[1], American Mathematical Society, published 1986, →ISBN, page xi:
But I hate having to say "he or she" or "his or her" or using awkward circumlocutions. Numerous approaches to this problem have been suggested, but one strikes me as particularly simple and sensible. Just as 'I' is the first person singular pronoun, regardless of gender, so 'E' will be used in this book as the third person singular pronoun for both genders. Thus, 'E' is the singular of 'they'. Accordingly, 'Eir' (pronounced to rhyme with 'their') will be the possessive, and 'Em' (rhyming with 'them') will stand for either 'him' or 'her'.

[2] Barbara Beeton (2021) “Michael D. Spivak, 1940–2020”, in TUGboat‎^[2], volume 42, number 3, TeX User Group, archived from the original on 2021-11-18, retrieved 2024-11-29, page 226: “The Joy of TeX is special in a number of ways. […] Pronouns are gender-neutral — E, Em, Eir — but even though these are now called “Spivak pronouns”, when I asked, Mike [Michael Spivak] said he didn’t originate them.”

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