| Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. |
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| EPICENE PRONOUNS |
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| Etymologically, epicene has had overtones of effeminacy, even decadence, but language commentators nowadays use the term principally to refer to nouns that have only one form for both sexes (chicken, for example, as compared with the feminine hen and the masculine rooster) and to pronouns that lack characteristics applying to only one sex. (The Greek root meant “common to many.”) Thus all the plural pronouns, the first and second person singular pronouns, the relative pronouns who and that, and the indefinite pronouns, such as everyone and somebody, are said to be epicene. See GENERIC PRONOUNS; INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE; SEXIST LANGUAGE; THEY. | 1 |
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| | | The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press. |
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