English

Pronoun

perself

1. (neologism, reflexive) per, themself; Gender-neutral object of a verb or preposition that also appears as the subject, the reflexive form of per.

   Per injured perself.

   • 1996 February 22, "Susan Groppi" (username), "These messages make me so sad...", in alt.adoption, Usenet:

     I can't comment on the original poster's motivations, but I do know that some agencies (mine, for instance) will not release any information until the adoptee is 18, and then the adoptee perself has to request the information.

   • 1996 December 6, "Suki L. McDonough" (username), "What's Up?", in soc.women.lesbian-and-bi, Usenet:

     My hit on the comment was that she was saying that a person on a newsgroup could choose *not* to publicly identify as a member of a visually identifiable minority which is subject to oppression, and therefore spend some time not having to have such oppression directed at perself as an individual (although obviously such a person would still be subject to "ist" postings which aim at the oppressed group in general).

   • 1997 April 22, "Anthony and Joy Hilbert" (username), "ASB: Info PDQ please re local group rules", in alt.sex.bondage, Usenet:

     The person who called perself a dom, but then breached a safeword or did something similarly non-consensual.

Synonyms

• themself

Hyponyms

• himself, herself

See also

• other attested and proposed gender-neutral pronouns