Thon
Thon is the oldest neopronoun on record: proposed in 1858 as a squeeze of "that one", once in a dictionary, now in use again.
- thon
- thon
- thons
- thons
Said: thun (rhymes with done, with the th of the)
The forms
| Subject | thonthon is here |
|---|---|
| Object | thonI saw thon |
| Possessive | thonsthons book |
| Possessive (standing alone) | thonsthat is thons |
| Reflexive | thonselfby thonself |
In a sentence
What it is
Thon is one word for subject and object, thons for both possessives, thonself for the reflexive. Thon came in. I asked thon. Thons coat. The coat is thons. Thon did it thonself. It rhymes with "done", with the th of "the".
It is a Victorian word. Charles Crozat Converse proposed it in 1858 as a contraction of "that one"; it sat in Merriam-Webster's dictionary from 1934 until it was dropped in 1961; and it has a small revival now among people who like a pronoun with a birth certificate.
How to use it
- Singular verbs: thon is, thon has.
- Thon is subject and object; thons is both possessives; thonself is the reflexive. You never need a fourth word.
- Thons takes no apostrophe in the older sources, though you will see thon's in some modern lists. Follow the person's own spelling if they have one.
- Say "thun". It does not rhyme with "on".
- Slipped into he or she? Swap the word and continue. Thon has heard it before.
Getting used to it
- Say "thon, thons, thonself" as three beats. Three words is the whole set; you will have it in a minute.
- Write the person's name with (thon/thons) next to it in your notes app.
- Use thon in one sentence about the person today, out loud, to someone who already knows. Low stakes, real practice.
Where it comes from
On record. Wikipedia and Wiktionary both credit Charles Crozat Converse, an American composer, with introducing thon as a gender-neutral pronoun in 1858, built from "that" and "one"; Wiktionary quotes his own 1889 request in The Writer that readers give "my little word a little trial". Wikipedia records that Merriam-Webster added it in 1934 and removed it in 1961. Wikipedia's table of third-person pronouns dates the coinage to 1884 instead; the Neopronoun article and Wiktionary both say 1858.
Questions people ask
Is thon a joke or a real pronoun?
Real, and older than most of the arguments about pronouns. It sat in a major American dictionary for nearly thirty years. A few people use it today, and they mean it.
Why is there no separate object form?
Because Converse built it from "that one", which does not change shape either. One word for subject and object is a feature, not a gap: one fewer thing to learn.
Other sets
Pronouns are one part of it
Twenty questions across six dimensions, about four minutes, then a ranked shortlist rather than a verdict. Scoring runs on your device; nothing you answer leaves it.
Pronouns are a request about language, not a claim about anyone else. Using someone’s pronouns costs nothing and says a lot.