The correct pronoun is "They," as in "They lost their job."
XX = She
XY = He
Grammar says otherwise. It's like any word. Just because the current use has corrupted it, it doesn't change the original meaning unless you are unwilling to look past that surface meaning.
No, the masculine is used for unidentified sex (not gender - people aren't words). It may have shifted among the uneducated or feminists, but this is the correct way.
The Oxford English Dictionary traces singular they back to 1375, where it appears in the medieval romance William and the Werewolf. Except for the old-style language of that poem, its use of singular they to refer to an unnamed person seems very modern. Here’s the Middle English version: ‘Hastely hiȝed eche . . . þei neyȝþed so neiȝh . . . þere william & his worþi lef were liand i-fere.’ In modern English, that’s: ‘Each man hurried . . . till they drew near . . . where William and his darling were lying together.’
Masculine is more common, more recently. Digging up an obscure usage is a straw man feminists and democrats use.
(post is archived)