A brief history of singular ‘they’ | Oxford English Dictionary
OED ambassador Prof Dennis Baron turns to the OED to provide a brief history of the singular 'they' - from the 14th century to present day:
@IdahoColeLeFavour That is a very good point!
@IdahoColeLeFavour Those are awesome cookies!
@opalmirror making his famous lasagna. Yum! Comfort food!
If you want to know how to pronounce it, I think it's right to look at the name Gabriel, another angel name, and pronounce it similarly. Although substitute in pronunciation "cat" for "gabe".
So I'm now Katriel, the non-binary, gender ambiguous/androgenous human being. And the name just feels right. (5 of 5)
I'm not a particularly religious person, and when I do feel the need for any kind of religious thought it tends to be neo-pagan rather than Judeo-Christian, but I do have an interesting relationship with the concept of angels, starting with a spiritual naming ceremony about 13 years ago which unexpectedly gave me the name of a different angel, and also the choice about a year later to have huge wings tattooed in white on my back. (4 of 5)
I was so thrilled to find Katriel. It feels like it keeps my basic identity, but by changing just the last two letters makes my old name into something that actually works for me.
Many people, I think, have assumed I made up Katriel. I didn't. It's a Hebrew name meaning "My crown is God". It's the name of an angel written of in the Talmud. Depending on the baby name source you look at, it's said to be either male, female or neutral. And that fits my needs very well. (3 of 5)
I've used Kat as a nickname off and on since college, and that always felt better to me. But it never felt like a whole name. And I didn't want to change my name drastically, and choose something completely unrelated, because I did feel a connection to the idea of my name, even if I didn't like it in whole. And it was mostly the end of the name, the "ina" part that didn't work for me. (2 of 5)
What's on my mind? My new name, Katriel. I love it. I thought I'd be happy with it, but I had no idea how much I'd love hearing it, seeing it, and using it. I hadn't liked my birth name (Katrina) since I was a child, but had no idea what to change it to, so I just lived with it. I knew, even then, that the name was too "girly" for me, it felt too soft, too feminine, but I had confusion and shame about feeling that way. Now I understand better *why* I felt that way. (1 of 5)
@opalmirror So glad you have better tires!
