‘Filipinx,’ ‘Pinxy’ among new nonbinary words in online dictionary

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As an online dictionary updated thousands of its entries, among the terms added in relation to Filipino identity were “Filipinx” and “Pinxy”.

Dictionary.com announced on Sept. 1 that over 15,000 of its entries have been updated, which includes “language surrounding race and ethnic identity.”

New words include “Filipina”, “Filipinx”, “Pinay”, “Pinoy” and “Pinxy”.

“Pinoy” has the same meaning as “Filipino” in referring to “natives or inhabitants of the Philippines,” while both “Filipina” and “Pinay” are the feminine forms of those terms.

“Filipinx” and “Pinxy” are defined as “of or relating to natives or inhabitants of the Philippines (used in place of the masculine form Filipino or the feminine form Filipina).”

“Filipinx” can be pronounced as “fil-uh-pee-neks” or “fil-uh-pingks” while “Pinxy” is read as “pingk-see”.

Terms such as “Filipinx” and “Pinxy” are viewed as ways to be more inclusive of people who identify as nonbinary, meaning that they experience their gender identity outside of the male/female binary.

The online dictionary linked the historical usage of “Filipinx” to “Latinx,” explaining that Spanish and other Romance languages have “gendered grammar”; words are classified as male and female by ending in -o and -a, respectively. Using -x instead of -o/-a is “embraced by groups that wish to include members whose gender identities are nonbinary.”

“Among our many new entries are thousands of deeper, dictionary-wide revisions that touch us on our most personal levels: how we talk about ourselves and our identities, from race to sexual orientation to mental health,” said John Kelly, senior editor at Dictionary.com. “Our revisions are putting people, in all their rich humanity, first, and we’re extremely proud of that.” JB

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