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w10-1yesterday at 6:22 PM1 replyview on HN

The article points out that Chaucer used "they" to refer to singular unknown person, so the usage is very old. It seems more respectful than assuming they are male.

I find myself wrong all the time, and I'm glad for the lesson!


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card_zeroyesterday at 6:48 PM

Leaning on Chaucer isn't sufficient, because it was once a pronoun used for people:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_(pronoun)

So maybe we should bring back it, or ignore Chaucer as an authority.

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