I'm currently finishing up a paper I have to write for class, and in my opening paragraph I have the following sentence:
Quote:
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We live in a world of discontentment, and when someone becomes discontent, the first thing they want to change is themselves . . .
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Themselves is a word, but themself isn't. I don't think I can use "themselves" there because I am changing from singular to plural in the span of one sentence, and that's no good.
I could use himself/herself, but I'd prefer to use a non-gender specific word, like "themself" but I was quite surprised to find that isn't even a recognized word unless it's written as two words (them self), and I am not sure if the meaning changes there or not.
Actually, now that I wrote that, I think "them self" could work there, but I'd appreciate it if someone could confirm this. For some reason I was looking for a compound, when I guess two words can suffice.
Thanks!