I was at a social event that was trans-friendly, so some people put their preferred pronoun on their name tags.  One person’s preferred pronoun was “ze” (instead of “he” or “she”) and I thought it said “26” in zir handwriting. I wondered who ze was trying to kid.

I don’t know how the young goat came to be called “kid,” but I do know how young people came to be called kids.  The word child, when pronounced with a hard C, no H, and an elided L, becomes “kid.”

I wonder how well “ze” and “zir” are catching on!  I think it will be easier to make a grammatical shift and accept “they” and “their” as singular, instead of inventing whole new words.  Are the trans grammar police gonna take umbrage?

What’s the etymology of “umbrage”?  Does it have something to do with shade?  I was surprised when I found out that “asombrado”in Spanish means “surprised,” not “in the shade.”