Each year we hear of new words being added to the dictionary to reflect the culture we’re living in.
Whether it’s the Netflix inspired ‘binge-watching’ or the horrors of online dating and the ‘ghosting’ effect, modern day living means we’re now inundated with new terms.
With the rise in LGBT rights, awareness, and the gender talk coming to the fore when one of Hollywood’s biggest reality stars Caitlyn Jenner revealed herself as transgender, it seems fitting that there’s now a new way to identify the term by your known title.
If you choose not to label yourself as ‘Mr.’ or ‘Mrs.’, you can now choose the latest prefix to be added to the dictionary.
Mx. (pronounced like mix) is a gender neutral option – the ‘M’ representing the first letters of the gendered honorifics, and the x lending to a gender unknown for the prefix.
According to Time, lexicographer Jane Solomon said the gender-neutral prefix will provide a diverse option for people who don’t feel comfortable identifying as one specific gender:
“The need for a gender-neutral prefix seems to be very, very top of mind for people.
“We’re starting to see a real cultural shift in which people are talking more openly about gender. You have ongoing conversation about gender in the public eye.”
The new prefix could be used to identify someone as bigender (where they have two genders), agender (having no gender), gender fluid (identity which refers to a gender which varies over time) or for a transgender person who still isn’t comfortable using a preferred pronoun of (he/she, him/her).
