ze, pron.

ze
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/ze_pron%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
First published 2018

# zepronoun

## Factsheet

### What does the pronoun ze mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the pronoun ze. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the pronoun ze?

About 0.7occurrences per million words in modern written English

1860 | 0.6
1870 | 0.64
1880 | 0.7
1890 | 0.77
1900 | 0.77
1910 | 0.74
1920 | 0.69
1930 | 0.59
1940 | 0.58
1950 | 0.59
1960 | 0.63
1970 | 0.65
1980 | 0.69
1990 | 0.66
2000 | 0.64
2010 | 0.63

### How is the pronoun ze pronounced?

#### British English

/ziː/
zee

#### U.S. English

/zi/
zee

### Where does the pronoun ze come from?

Earliest known use

1860s

The earliest known use of the pronoun ze is in the 1860s.

OED's earliest evidence for ze is from 1864, in the Ladies' Repository.

ze is formed within English, by compounding.

Etymons: z-, he pron., she pron.1

### Nearby entries

1. zayat, n. 1823–
2. zayde, n. 1946–
3. zazen, n. 1727–
4. zazzy, adj. 1961–
5. Z band, n. 1950–
6. ZBB, n. 1976–
7. Z-bed, n. 1973–
8. Z-car, n. 1961–
9. Z-day, n. 1925–
10. Z-DNA, n. 1979–
11. ze, pron.1864–
12. zea, n. 1562–
13. zeagonite, n. 1823–
14. zeal, n. a1382–
15. zeal, v. 1542–1687
16. Zealander, n.¹ 1663–
17. Zealander, n.² 1773–
18. Zealandic, adj. 1807–
19. Zealandish, adj. 1684–
20. zealator, n. a1464–
21. zeal-blind, adj. 1615–1898

## Etymology

### Summary

Formed within English, by compounding.
Etymons: z-, he pron., she pron.1
< z- (chosen as representing a sound not used in other pronouns) + ‑e (in he pron., she pron.1); influenced by German sie she, they (pronounced /ziː/ : see hoo pron. and hi pron.2, respectively).

Compare s/he pron.2

## Meaning & use

1. 1864–
   Used as a gender-neutral third person singular subject pronoun. Cf. s/he pron.2
   In later contextual use, especially with reference to individuals who do not identify themselves as either male or female, but rather as another or no gender, or as a combination of genders, as distinct from use as a term for unknown individuals of unspecified gender.
   Quot. 1864 appears to be an isolated early use.
   1. 1864

      > The suggestion of your correspondent ‘Philologus’ respecting the poverty of our language in its need of an epicene pronoun, is one that must have occurred to every intelligent person... The only points to be considered are, the selection of a suitable word—and I think that either ‘ve’ or ‘ze’ would equally answer the requirement—and the method of its propagation.

      Ladies Repository September 567/2
   2. 1972

      > Once we are committed to ‘ze’ for the subjective, the other forms follow fairly easily.

      S. Polgar in Newsletter Amer. Anthropol. Association September 18/1
   3. 1985

      > My nomination? Zhe. (The zh is pronounced like the z in azure.) Example: If a person saw an automobile accident, what should zhe do?

      Re: Non-sexist Lang. (Hist.) in net.nlang 14 June (Usenet newsgroup, accessed 16 Jan. 2017)
   4. 1996

      > I don't have a personal stake in whether the trans liberation movement results in..gender-neutral pronouns, like the ones, such as ze (she/he) and hir (her/his), being experimented with in cyberspace.

      L. Feinberg, Transgender Warriors Preface p. x
   5. 2016

      > It seems entirely possible that in my daughter's lifetime, gender-specific pronouns will sound as archaic as ‘thee’ and ‘thou’, supplanted by ‘ze’ or ‘zir’ or some neologism of the future.

      Washington Post (Nexis) 10 January (Outlook section) b3

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ziː/
zee

### U.S. English

/zi/
zee

###
Variant: zhe

### British English

/ʒi/
zhee

### U.S. English

/ʒi/
zhee

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- ɬrhingyll
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛtl/ but /ˈpɛtl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- atrap, bath
- ɑːstart, palm, bath
- ɒlot
- ɔːthought, force
- ʌstrut
- ʊfoot
- uːgoose
- əletter
- əːnurse
- ɪənear
- ɛːsquare
- ʊəcure
- eɪface
- ʌɪpride
- aʊmouth
- əʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ãgratin
- ɒ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but /ˈpɛdl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- ifleece, happy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- ætrap, bath
- ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
- ɑrstart
- ɔcloth, thought
- ɔrnorth, force
- ʊfoot
- ugoose
- əstrut, comma
- ərnurse, letter
- ɪ(ə)rnear
- ɛ(ə)rsquare
- ʊ(ə)rcure
- eɪface
- aɪpride
- aʊmouth
- oʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ɑ̃gratin
- æ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.

##### Consonants

b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values

- gguy
- jjay
- yyore
- chchore
- khloch
- shshore
- ththaw
- dhthee
- zhbeige

##### Vowels

- atrap
- ahpalm
- airsquare
- arstart
- arrcarry (British only)
- awthought
- ayface
- a(ng)gratin
- edress
- eefleece
- eerdeer
- errmerry
- ikit
- ighpride
- irrmirror
- olot (British only)
- ohgoat
- oogoose
- oorcure
- orforce
- orrsorry (British only)
- owmouth
- oyvoice
- o(ng)salon
- ustrut
- uhletter
- urnurse
- urrhurry
- uufoot

## Forms

### Variant forms

1. 1900s–
   sie, xe, ze, zee, zhe ( British English /ʒi/ (zhee) , U.S. English /ʒi/ (zhee) ), zie

## Frequency

ze typically occurs about 0.7 times per million words in modern written English.

ze is in frequency band 4, which contains words occurring between 0.1 and 1 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands

Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### Frequency of ze, pron., 1860–2010

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.

The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.

For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.

Decade | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
1860 | 0.6
1870 | 0.64
1880 | 0.7
1890 | 0.77
1900 | 0.77
1910 | 0.74
1920 | 0.69
1930 | 0.59
1940 | 0.58
1950 | 0.59
1960 | 0.63
1970 | 0.65
1980 | 0.69
1990 | 0.66
2000 | 0.64
2010 | 0.63

## Compounds & derived words

Sort by

1. zir, pron. 1993–
   Used as a gender-neutral third person singular…

1. zir, adj. 1993–
   Used as a gender-neutral possessive adjective…

ze, pron. was first published in June 2018.

ze, pron. was last modified in December 2024.