About the whole “singular they” non-debate: If someone tells you singular ‘they’ is wrong, please do tell them to get stuffed
(Yes, I do mean non-debate: If a “debate” is a bunch of people making demands of reality, it isn’t a debate. It’s an open-air mental institution.)
Singular “they” is in a bit of an odd spot right now: It’s caught on completely for quasi-plural words like “everyone”, but it still sounds a bit odd in completely singular contexts. Compare, for instance, “I e-mailed the HR director and asked them if I could meet with them”: It sounds like I’m communicating with the whole HR team, instead of just the person at the top. Ordinarily in such a situation, one would use “he” if the director was male and “she” if female, but one might not necessarily know.
Singular They is also the pronoun some transgender people prefer to use.
jsc1953:
**"**There’s a sort-of related linguistic evolution, where the “adjective + noun” phrase gets shortened to just the adjective. The best example is “short pants” becoming “shorts”. Less common, “pearly whites” for “pearly white teeth”. "
For the omission, or elision, of sound(s) or syllable(s) from a word, there are these terms:
apheresis
apocope
syncope
…but I’m not aware of a term for the omission of word(s) from phrases.
Maybe we need a linguistically evolved neologism that “scales up” the above terms–suggestions?
Syncope accounts for the weird-looking
fo’c’s’le, sometimes
fo’c’sle
Forecastle (pron. fowk-sul; commonly abbreviated “fo’c’s’le”) refers to the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or the forward part of a ship with the sailors’ living quarters.