enby

English

Etymology

Pronunciation spelling of the letters NB, an initialism of non-binary. Coined by the Tumblr user revolutionator in 2013 as "an nb equivalent to words like boys and girls".

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈɛnbi/

Noun

enby (plural enbies)

1. (neologism) A person who is non-binary; that is, a person whose gender identity is not strictly that of a man or woman.
   • 2017, Will McCreath, "My non-binary wedding", Diva, October 2017, page 18:

     I doubt most wedding fair vendors would recognise an enby even if you carried an explanatory sign.

   • 2018, Dan Savage, "Savage Love", Santa Fe Reporter, 27 June - July 3 2018, page 28:

     So, boys and girls and enbies, if the sex isn't good at or very near the beginning, the passage of time and/or muttering of vows isn't going to fix it.

   • 2019, Claire G. Coleman, The Old Lie, unnumbered page:

     'Ladies and enbies,' she said, the five foot three height requirement for pilots continued to mean that nearly all the human fighter pilots she had ever met were women or enbies.

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

Adjective

enby (not comparable)

1. (neologism) Non-binary; having a gender identity that is not male or female.
   • 2017, S. Bear Bergman and Meg-John Barker, Genderqueer and Non-Binary Genders, Palgrave Macmillan, page 43:

     For non-binary-identified (or, to use my current favourite term, enby) people, this is magnified by the fact that while most of everyone except Germaine Greer and Donald Trump are prepared to recognise that trans people do exist these days, the enby population is still struggling up that hill […]

   • 2018, Zoë Godden, "Interview: Saffron Kershaw-Mee", The Courier, 14 May 2018, page 23:

     Would you consider yourself an enby BNOC?

   • 2018, Peach Delosreyes-Yu, "A Stream of Consciousness on Self-Acceptance", ENBY Magazine, August 2018, page 7:

     […] and the enby community needs to be welcoming of nb lesbians a well," says Evee Sams, a lesbian, polyamorous, agender, trans gxrl.

Derived terms

• enbyfriend

See also

• genderqueer

Anagrams

• byen