sinjoriĉo

Esperanto

Etymology

From sinjoro (“sir”, reconstrued as ‘sir or madam’) +‎ -iĉo (“male”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [sinjoˈrit͡ʃo]
• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -it͡ʃo
• Hyphenation: sin‧jo‧ri‧ĉo

Noun

sinjoriĉo (accusative singular sinjoriĉon, plural sinjoriĉoj, accusative plural sinjoriĉojn)

1. (neologism, nonstandard, proscribed) sir

   Synonym: sinjoro

   Coordinate term: sinjorino

Usage notes

The neologistic suffix -iĉo is controversial, but even among its proponents the word sinjoriĉo is commonly not recommended. The word sinjoro traditionally already means “sir” even without the addition of the masculine suffix -iĉo, making the suffix redundant.

Many users of the term believe that the meaning of sinjoro (and other gendered root words) should be changed to have a gender neutral meaning. Other people that actively use it do not aim to change the traditional meaning of “sinjoro”, but think the redundancy of -iĉo is preferable to the asymmetry between the forms sinjoro (“sir”) and sinjorino (“madam, miss”).

See also Gender reform in Esperanto and its section Masculine suffixes on Wikipedia, and the article on -iĉ- in Esperanto.