eir

Coined by Christine M. Elverson by removing "th" from their.

• (General American) enPR: âr, IPA^(key): /ɛɹ/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: âr, IPA^(key): /ɛə/
• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
• Homophones: air, ere

eir

1. (rare, nonstandard) Belonging to em, gender-neutral third-person singular possessive adjective, equivalent to the singular their and coordinate with his and her.
   • 1975 August 23, Judie Black, “Ey has a word for it”, in Chicago Tribune, section 1, page 12:

     Eir sentences would sound smoother since ey wouldn’t clutter them with the old sexist pronouns. And if ey should trip up in the new usage, ey would only have emself to blame.

   • 1996 December 22, Shirley Worth, “New To Yoga”, in alt.yoga‎^[1] (Usenet), message-ID <32BDCA0C.6C8@worth.org>:

     A person whose habit is to stand and walk splay-footed may *think* eir feet are straight ahead, when they are actually pointed only slightly less out.

   • 1997 November 25, Scott Robert Dawson, “Who Pays for Cellular Calls”, in alt.cellular‎^[2] (Usenet), message-ID <347acf56.333719@news.interlog.com>:

     If a mobile user is far from eir home area, ey will pay a long-distance fee for carriage of the call *from* eir home area, just as a caller would pay long-distance on a call *to* that area.

   • 2004 March 31, Sue Thomas, Hello World : travels in virtuality‎^[3], Raw Nerve Books, →ISBN, →OL, page 78:

     The adult worries much less; is cautious, sensible and knows how to protect emself and eir system from attack and error.

   • 2011 March 15, RJ Edwards, “#89: New Friend”, in Riot Nrrd‎^[4], retrieved 2012-10-06:

     And ultimately: I think my readers are mature enough that knowing eir assigned gender is not going to give them an “excuse” to misgender em.

   • 2023, Aimee Ogden, “A Half-Remembered World”, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol. 145, no. 1-2, whole no. 768 (July/August 2023), pages 146-202

     “You idiot girl! Are you childsick?” She grabbed Asu’s wrist; Asu made no effort to twist away. “Sand and soil, tell me you’re not pregnant. Is it that—what’s eir name? Aeran? Have you lain with em? Tell me!”

     […]

     Empre waded out to help them cross the last stretch. More people, a few hundred, perhaps, had gathered along the shore. One of them came running at Melu with a cry—she threw up her arms in defense. But it was Aeran, only Aeran. E seized Asu and clasped her close, eir eyes closed tightly as e sobbed eir relief.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:eir.

• see Appendix:English third-person singular pronouns

• eirs; eirself

• rie, RIE, ire, Rie, IRE, IrE, rei, Ire., -ier, Eri, Eri.

Chemical element
Cu
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From Old Norse eir, from Proto-Germanic *aiz. Cognate with Faroese eir, Norwegian eir, Danish ir, Old English ār (> English ore), Old High German ēr.

• IPA^(key): /eiːr/
• Rhymes: -eiːr
• Homophone: Eir

eir m (genitive singular eirs, no plural) or
eir n (genitive singular eirs, no plural)

1. (uncountable) copper (a reddish-brown, malleable, ductile metallic element with high electrical and thermal conductivity, symbol Cu, and atomic number 29)

   Synonym: kopar m

• eirgræna, spanskgræna (“verdigris”)

eir

1. impersonal present indicative of mynet

eir n (definite singular eiret, indefinite plural eir, definite plural eira or eirene)

1. Alternative form of irr

From Old Norse eir n, from Proto-Germanic *aiz n, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éyos n (“copper, bronze”). Germanic cognates include English ore, German ehern, Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐌶 (aiz) and Danish ir. Indo-European cognates include Latin aes and Sanskrit अयस् (ayas).

eir n (definite singular eiret, indefinite plural eir, definite plural eira)

1. verdigris (especially on copper)

• eira, eire, eirast (verb)
• eirete
• eirgrøn

• irr (Bokmål)

• “eir” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Latin hērēs.

eir oblique singular, m (oblique plural eirs, nominative singular eirs, nominative plural eir)

1. heir
   • c. 1170, Wace, Le Roman de Rou:

     Rou en fist son eir

     Rollo made him his heir

• Anglo-Norman: heir, aire
  • → Middle English: heir
    • English: heir
    • Scots: heir
    • → Welsh: aer
• French: hoir (obsolete)
• → Middle Irish: eigre
  • Irish: oidhre
  • Manx: eirey
  • Scottish Gaelic: oighre

From Proto-Germanic *aiz n, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éyos n.

eir n

1. brass, copper

In several of the descendant languages, the meaning has shifted from copper to verdigris.

• Icelandic: eir m or n
• Norwegian Nynorsk: eir n
  • → Norwegian Bokmål: eir n
• Swedish: ärg c
• Danish: ir c
  • Norwegian Bokmål: irr n

• Eir

• “eir”, in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

eir

1. (Surmiran) Alternative form of ir (“go”)

• IPA^(key): /ei̯r/

eir

1. (literary) impersonal present/future of mynd

• elir