I have actually already started using it. So is it an official word that can be used now?
If so, please state its official date of entry into the English language and its pronunciation.
There is no such thing as an “official term” in general English. And the Google definition doesn’t say anything about its being “official,” mostly because it can’t.
If you work for a person or organization with an “official” style guide then you might say that a term is “official” for that entity’s publications, but that’s all.
My real question is: can I actually use this word now and have it be correct?
It’s like any other word in English—it depends on whether your audience thinks it’s correct.
Figure out who your audience is and see if they buy it.
What do you mean by “According to Google it is”? What you linked to was not the result of something that Google itself produced. What you linked to was a Wikipedia entry. You may have found that entry by a Google search, but that says nothing about what Google officially endorses. Furthermore, the entry you cite only barely mentions “hir”. It just says that “hir” is one of a number of proposed pronouns. It doesn’t even indicate whether there are many people using those words, and it says nothing about what is official.
What do reputable dictionaries say about its pronunciation?
That would be the date when it was first used, and someone else understood it.
English is not French.
Does the Dope buy it?
Your question has a flawed premise–namely, that there’s any such thing as “correct” terms. There’s what’s called Standard English, and that’s a nebulously defined term, but I’ve not seen “hir” in anything resembling standard English. If you’re writing in a business environment (e.g., a college application, a letter to a business, etc.), you’d probably do well to avoid the term unleess you wish to make a political point.
Not many people regularly use gender-neutral pronouns of any sort in their posts, so I’d say no.
I went to a crazy liberal dirty hippy college. IME, “hir” and “zhe” were used mostly for academic writing in gender studies departments. I rarely encountered it in every day speech or writing, even from the advocates of gender neutral pronouns.
In certain social circles, people will expect gender neutral pronouns. In other settings, people won’t know what you’re talking about. Some people will dismiss you as That Crazy Liberal Guy* With An Agenda.
*where I grew up, “guy” is gender neutral.
I’ve never seen “hir” used to mean “gender neutral”. I have seen it used as a pronoun in fiction for hermaphrodites however. Star Trek novels, for example.
I use it when I don’t know the gender. That happebs quite a bit here. Oh and “zhe” is a word? Cool.
I’m going to start using “happebs”.
Since gist of your question would be whether the term has become generally acceptable: no. It’s still mostly a gender-studies word.
Plus, there is nothing wrong with them and their. And they’ve been in use since the 1600s. It is the most common word used for the concept, to the point that the NIV, the most popular English modern Bible translation, now uses it. They based their translation vocabulary entirely on usage studies.
FWIW, it’s pronounced as “here”, at least according to this site:
I agree that “them” and “their” has a lot more social acceptance, although I still wouldn’t use it in standard English, due to the language mavens who get all uptight about such things. I love the recent organic use of “yo” in Maryland teenagers for gender-neutral references, and I hope that it gains circulation, although i’m not optimistic that it will.
From Wikipedia’s page on Gender-neutral pronouns, specifically Invented Pronouns, I found this to be helpful:
I don’t use the invented pronouns, and instead of he/she I tend to use s/he.
No substitutes for he and she or their variants have ever made their way into the language. If you use one it will stick out like an affectation or a solecism or a weirdness. The use of “they” has been growing in acceptance because the variants don’t work. And nothing is wrong with using “he or she”. So it’s a couple of extra characters. Big deal.
Or you could learn how to write around the problem so the issue never comes up.
hir knows.
If one doesn’t mind sounding a bit pretentious, one may use “one” as a gender-free pronoun.