Citations:they

Pronoun: group of people, animals, plants or objects

 * ca. 1599–1601, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 3, scene 3:
 * 'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother, since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear the speech of vantage.
 * 2000, Exploring Life Science ISBN 0761471413, page 406:
 * Most animals use their hands to move from place to place; humans use their hands for other tasks.
 * 2008, John E. Cooper, Birds of Prey: Health and Disease, page 20:
 * Raptors use their feet to capture their prey[.]
 * 2014, Ruth Owen, How Do Plants Make Their Own Food?

Pronoun: single person of unspecified gender

 * 1595, Shakespeare, William, The Comedy of Errors, act IV, scene 3, line 1172:
 * There's not a man I meet but doth salute me As if I were their well-acquainted friend
 * Arise; one knocks; good Romeo, hide thyself. Hark, how they knock! Who's there?
 * Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.
 * ' (1395) phrases the first part as "man and woman" rather than "man or woman", so that the "they" is plural: "thou schalt lede out the man and the womman, that diden a moost cursid thing, to the yatis of thy citee, and thei''' schulen be oppressid with stoonus."
 * if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
 * Upon which every body fell a laughing; as how could they help it?
 * 2008,, quoted in , Michelle Obama in Her Own Words, New York, NY: PublicAffairs, 2009. ISBN 978 1 58648 762 1, page 18:
 * One thing a nominee earns is the right to pick the vice president that they think will best reflect their vision of the country, and I am just glad I will have nothing to do with it.
 * 2009, The Welfare of Domestic Fowl and Other Captive Birds ISBN 9048136504, page 104:
 * Once a bird who has bonded to a person realises that that person will deny the bird their company for a few minutes because of the biting, the bird then has the incentive to cease biting.
 * 2012 November,, [//www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/11/11/remarks-president-veterans-day Remarks by the President on Veterans Day]
 * No one who fights for this country overseas should ever have to fight for a job, or a roof over their head, or the care that they have earned when they come home.
 * 2012, Stephen Mason, Electronic Signatures in Law ISBN 1107012295, page 33:
 * Lord Hunter also indicated that the use of a familiar or pet name could be a valid signature provided it was proved that the writer signed their name usually in such a way.
 * 2008,, quoted in , Michelle Obama in Her Own Words, New York, NY: PublicAffairs, 2009. ISBN 978 1 58648 762 1, page 18:
 * One thing a nominee earns is the right to pick the vice president that they think will best reflect their vision of the country, and I am just glad I will have nothing to do with it.
 * 2009, The Welfare of Domestic Fowl and Other Captive Birds ISBN 9048136504, page 104:
 * Once a bird who has bonded to a person realises that that person will deny the bird their company for a few minutes because of the biting, the bird then has the incentive to cease biting.
 * 2012 November,, [//www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/11/11/remarks-president-veterans-day Remarks by the President on Veterans Day]
 * No one who fights for this country overseas should ever have to fight for a job, or a roof over their head, or the care that they have earned when they come home.
 * 2012, Stephen Mason, Electronic Signatures in Law ISBN 1107012295, page 33:
 * Lord Hunter also indicated that the use of a familiar or pet name could be a valid signature provided it was proved that the writer signed their name usually in such a way.
 * 2008,, quoted in , Michelle Obama in Her Own Words, New York, NY: PublicAffairs, 2009. ISBN 978 1 58648 762 1, page 18:
 * One thing a nominee earns is the right to pick the vice president that they think will best reflect their vision of the country, and I am just glad I will have nothing to do with it.
 * 2009, The Welfare of Domestic Fowl and Other Captive Birds ISBN 9048136504, page 104:
 * Once a bird who has bonded to a person realises that that person will deny the bird their company for a few minutes because of the biting, the bird then has the incentive to cease biting.
 * 2012 November,, [//www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/11/11/remarks-president-veterans-day Remarks by the President on Veterans Day]
 * No one who fights for this country overseas should ever have to fight for a job, or a roof over their head, or the care that they have earned when they come home.
 * 2012, Stephen Mason, Electronic Signatures in Law ISBN 1107012295, page 33:
 * Lord Hunter also indicated that the use of a familiar or pet name could be a valid signature provided it was proved that the writer signed their name usually in such a way.
 * 2012, Stephen Mason, Electronic Signatures in Law ISBN 1107012295, page 33:
 * Lord Hunter also indicated that the use of a familiar or pet name could be a valid signature provided it was proved that the writer signed their name usually in such a way.

Pronoun: single person of non-binary gender

 * 2014, Sigrid Rausing, Granta 129: Fate ISBN 1905881843:
 * I write 'they' because this is Sean's own 'preferred pronoun': they were born female and have a female body, but identify as 'genderqueer' rather than as 'male' or 'female'. Sometimes, they told me, they experience gender dysphoria
 * 2014, Ivan E. Coyote, Rae Spoon, Gender Failure ISBN 1551525372
 * The boycott, led by Elisha Lim, of a Toronto gay and lesbian newspaper after it refused to use their preferred pronoun ["they"], citing grammar considerations, inspired me.

Pronoun: single person of specified sex or gender
Someone who is just like you and needs a gentle hand to guide them along... So maybe I'll see you there
 * 1951, J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
 * He's one of those guys who's always patting themself on the back.
 * 1965, Petula Clark, Downtown (song)
 * And you may find somebody kind to help and understand you
 * And you may find somebody kind to help and understand you
 * 1995, Philip Roth, Sabbath's Theater ISBN 0547345739:
 * Guys with small dry lips, they turn me off, I often look at their hands to see if they have strong, expressive hands. Then I imagine that they have a big dick.  That guy I had in Aspen,  With a younger guy you know it [erection] 's an easier thing.  Everybody jerks their dick differently.
 * 2008, Kenneth David Chase, Fishing in the Right Pond - Finding and Pursuing Gay Guys in a Straight World ISBN 143483932X, page 57:
 * Your dick is rock hard, dripping with pre-cum, and now you look to see if their dick is hard when when you roll them over on their back. If they have a huge bulge in their pants where their dick is rock hard too, grab it through their pants
 * 2011, Carmen Caboom, Diary of a Vindictive Closet Freak: Love, Loss, Lust and Lies ISBN 1467072990, page 300:
 * Somebody had been getting their pussy eaten, and it wasn't me.
 * 2015 April, (mayor of Baltimore), commenting on the death of Freddie Gray:
 * I'm angry that we're here again, that we have had to tell another mother that their child is dead.
 * 2022 June 4, David Cohen, quoted in "Is it legal for women to travel out of state for an abortion?", Ava Sasani, The New York Times:
 * “It’s hard to tell at this point, but I think it’s likely that [the prosecutors] will go after the people that help the woman get the abortion,” he said. “The person who drives them, the doctor who sees them.”

Pronoun: single animal or plant

 * 1859, A new dictionary of quotations from the Greek, Latin, and modern languages second thousand (London, John Farquhar Shaw), page 34 (translating a Latin proverb):
 * "To the ass, the sow, and every animal, their own offspring appears the fairest in the whole creation."
 * 1887, Hiram Erastus Butler, The Seven Creative Principles, page 60:
 * This law of order, united with the other principles, gives every plant, every vegetable, and every animal their distinct form, by virtue of the quality of the germ-life coming from its parental source.
 * 2008, Tina Ganton, His Image: Photo Devotionals ISBN 1434338312, page 24:
 * As I sat on my deck one morning, I was reminded of God's choir through nature. He has given every bird their own special song. Bluebirds, cardinals, and robins

Pronoun: less-clear citations

 * Are these singular or plural?:


 * 2005, The Bird Observer: The Official Organ of the Bird Observers' Club, Issues 834-845:
 * For such a tiny bird, their wing beats are surprisingly loud.
 * 2010, Theresa West, Sister Theresa's Lighthouse: Collection of Gospel Quotes ISBN 1453521399:
 * “God gives every bird their food,
 * Yes, but he does not toss it into their nests.”
 * 2014, Heather Shropshire, The Dragon Bard ISBN 1493197509, page 12:
 * Depending on the type, raising, and age of the dragon, their interests may change. An example of this can be seen, although this is not exactly the best example, in the desires of a child. The desires of a child change greatly as the child grows older, going from simple toys to wealth.

Noun-ish

 * 1993, John Taggart, Remaining in Light: Ant Meditations on a Painting By Edward Hopper (SUNY Press, ISBN 9780791415061), page 123:
 * While the latter is taken up with all sorts of description of the beloved, description which would constitute the contents of the book, the key to it all is a &quot;they&quot; asking the speaker for such a volume in the first place. Ordinarily, no one asks. Books are written in and against a nul[l] space of hypothetical readers&#39; desire. Once a manuscript has been submitted to a publisher, though, this can change. There is a &quot;they&quot; there. They are the editors and the outside readers hired by the editors.

Noun-ish: an other or group of others

 * 2007, Cynthia Willis-Esqueda, Motivational Aspects of Prejudice and Racism (Springer Science & Business Media, ISBN 9780387732336), page 111:
 * ... then attempts to ameliorate bias should be directed not at eliminating these processes entirely, which are functional in many ways, but rather at redirecting the forces of ingroup bias to produce more harmonious intergroup relations. By shifting the basis of categorization from race to an alternative dimension, shared by Blacks and Whites who may be interacting, we can potentially alter who is a “we” and who is a “they,” undermining a potentially contributing force to aversive racism.


 * 2009, Todd D. Nelson, Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination (Psychology Press, ISBN 9781136642708), page 489:
 * by shifting the basis of categorization from race to an alternative dimension shared by African Americans and European Americans who may be interacting, it might be possible to alter who is a “we” and who is a “they” through recategorization, and thereby undermine a potentially contributing force to intergroup biases. In this chapter, we summarize  research on a prejudice reduction strategy, the common ingroup identity model (Gaertner &amp; Dovidio, 2000; Gaertner, Dovidio, Anastasio, Bachman, &amp; Rust, 1993), which has guided our work on the reduction of intergroup bias.

Noun-ish: a plural, a group

 * 2012, Advances in Homeland Security Research and Application: 2011 Edition (ISBN 9781464931031):
 * .Second, George W Bush was a failed “reconstructive President” who came up short in his efforts to persuade the public and the courts to embrace a constitutional vision of vast, unilateral, and judicially unreviewable  executive branch authority to combat terrorist threats. Third, the Supreme Court is a “they,” not an “it,” whose War on Terror rulings have often reflected, as future decisions are likely also to represent, the chance dominance of the view of the median Justice.


 * 2014, Mark Bovens, Robert E. Goodin, Thomas Schillemans, The Oxford Handbook of Public Accountability (OUP Oxford, ISBN 9780191002571):
 * ... one thing, Congress is a “they,” not an “it,” and furthermore bureaucrats have other principals besides the multiple principals in Congress itself.

Pronoun: single person of unspecified gender

 * 1325, Cursor Mundi:
 * Bath ware made sun and mon,
 * Aiþer wit þer ouen light
 * For to tuin dai fra night,
 * 1382, , 38:31:
 * Eche on in þer craft ys wijs.
 * Each one in their craft is wise.
 * Each one in their craft is wise.