ze

See also Appendix:Variations of "ze"

English

Etymology 1

Article

ze

1. Eye dialect spelling of the (usually signifying a foreign accent, often French).
   • 1992, Tristan Jones, Adrift, page 257:

     Then one French-American sous-chef, still in his white kitchen gear, climbed down from the cockpit, where he had been inspecting the cabin, peering inside, murmuring, "wonderfool–wonderfool, ze workmansheep!"

Etymology 2

Pronoun

ze

1. (neologism) they (singular). Gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun, coordinate with gendered pronouns he and she.
   • 1996 June, Caitlin Sullivan; Bornstein, Kate, Nearly Roadkill: an Infobahn erotic adventure^[1], New York: Serpent's Tail, LCC PS3569.U3449 N43 1996, ISBN 978-1852424183, LCCN 95072971, OL 820831M, page 10:

     But I do know what sex ze is. It used to influence me. But now I talk to hir like a normal person. I mean, without thinking about what ze is.

   • 1997 December 18, Kate Bornstein, My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely, London, New York: Routledge, LCC HQ1075.B69 1998, ISBN 978-0415916738, LCCN 98134184, OL 7495768M, page 130:

     A case in point is Tula, a transgendered woman who for years lived well as a model and actress until ze was outed in both national and international media.

   • 2006 March 22, Leslie Feinberg, Drag King Dreams, New York: Carroll & Graf, LCC PS3556.E427 D73 2006, ISBN 978-0786717637, LCCN 2006297545, OL 17890120M, page 205:

     Ze takes my right hand in hirs and folds it into a fist.

   • 2010 October 12, Erika Lopez, The Girl Must Die: A Monster Girl Memoir, Hicken, Jeffrey, San Francisco: Monster Girl Media, ISBN 978-0984401406, LCCN 21010902427, page 143:

     Ze changed hir name to one of those New Testament names, and re-fashioned hirself into a soft, puffy, half-finished hermaphrodite nicknamed, The Pop n' Fresh Doe.

   • 2011 March 15, M. J. Locke, Up Against It, New York: Tor, LCC PS3612.O249 U7 2011, ISBN 978-0765315151, LCCN 2010036538, OL 24494916M, page 361:

     Hir face was implacable, but ze dashed away in tears.

Synonyms

• (singular) they
• (neologism) e, ey, sie

Hyponyms

• he, she

Usage notes

• The genderqueer community are the primary proponents of ze. One refers to a person with ze and hir typically (a) when their gender is unknown, and one wishes to avoid assuming their gender, or (b) when they are neither male nor female in gender, making he and she (and also either/or terms like s/he or (s)he) inappropriate and potentially hurtful.

See also

• other attested and proposed gender-neutral pronouns

Anagrams

• EZ

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Czech

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Preposition

ze

1. from

Usage notes

This preposition is followed by the genitive case.

Synonyms

• z

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA: /zə/

Pronoun

ze

1. Unstressed form of zij

Usage notes

Ze is used for both subject (she, they) and object (them).

Declension

Dutch personal pronouns

	subject		object		possessive			reflexive
singular	full	unstr.	full	unstr.	full	unstr.	pred.
1st person	ik	'k1	mij	me	mijn	m'n1	mijne	me
2nd person	jij	je	jou	je	jouw	je	jouwe	je
2nd person dialectal	gij	ge	u	–	uw	–	uwe	u
2nd person formal	u	–	u	–	uw	–	uwe	zich
3rd person masculine	hij	ie1	hem	'm1	zijn	z'n1	zijne	zich
3rd person feminine	zij	ze	haar	'r1, d'r1	haar	'r1, d'r1	hare	zich
3rd person neuter	het	't1	het	't1	zijn	z'n1	zijne	zich
plural
1st person	wij	we	ons	–	ons, onze2	–	onze	ons
2nd person	jullie	je	jullie	je	jullie	je	–	je
2nd person dialectal	gij	ge	u	–	uw	–	uwe	u
2nd person formal	u	–	u	–	uw	–	uwe	zich
3rd person	zij	ze	hen3, hun4	ze	hun	–	hunne	zich
1) Not as common in written language. 2) Inflected as an adjective.				3) In prescriptivist use, used only as direct object (accusative). 4) In prescriptivist use, used only as indirect object (dative).

Adverb

ze

1. (following an imperative) break a leg, go get 'em, do well, good luck

   Werk ze vanavond!

   Good luck working tonight!

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Esperanto

Noun

ze (plural ze-oj, accusative singular ze-on, accusative plural ze-ojn)

1. The name of the Latin script letter Z/z.

See also

• (Latin script letter names) litero; a, bo/‎be, co/‎ce, ĉo/‎ĉa, do/‎de, e, fo/‎ef, go/‎ge, ĝo/‎ĝe, ho/‎ha, ĥo/‎ĥi, i, jo/‎je, ĵo/‎ĵi, ko/‎ka, lo/‎el, mo/‎om, no/‎en, o, po/‎pa, ro/‎ar, so/‎es, ŝo/‎eŝ, to/‎ta, u, ŭo/‎eŭ, vo/‎vi, zo/‎ze ^{(Category: eo:Latin letter names)}

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Japanese

Romanization

ze

1. See ぜ
2. See ゼ

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Lojban

Lojban cardinal numbers

<  xa	ze	bi  >
Cardinal : ze

Cmavo

ze (rafsi zel)

1. seven

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Mandarin

Romanization

ze

1. Nonstandard spelling of zé.
2. Nonstandard spelling of zè.

Usage notes

English transcriptions of Chinese speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Chinese language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

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Polish

Alternative forms

• z

Pronunciation

• IPA: /zɛ/

• Audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

Form of z. See there.

Preposition

ze (+ genitive)

1. from

   Jestem ze Szwecji. – I'm from Sweden.

2. made of

Etymology 2

Form of z. See there.

Preposition

ze (+ instrumental)

1. with

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Turkish

Noun

ze

1. The name of the Latin script letter Z/z.

See also

• (Latin script letter names) harf; a, be, ce, çe, de, e, fe, ge, yumuşak ge, he, ı, i, je, ke, le, me, ne, o, ö, pe, re, se, şe, te, u, ü, ve, ye, ze ^{(Category: tr:Latin letter names)}