History of usage of singular "they" (gender-neutral)

Question

I have just read in Emma by Jane Austen a phrase which surprised me:

I can think of but one thing - Who is in love with her? Who makes you their confidant?

(Jane Austen: Emma, Chapter VIII, Obreey PocketBook)

Here the lattest who is clearly in singular (followed by makes), the gender of the person under question is unknown, so I understand it as a gender neutral their:

Who makes you his/her confidant? Who has confided you the information about her lover?

I wouldn't expect such an old usage of their functioning as a singular gender neutral word. I've always considered this "grammar trick" as a much more modern invention.

Is it really a usage of the gender neutral their? Is it so old that Jane Austen could have used it? Or was it just some recent editor who didn't consider the good old Austen "correct enough" and "fixed" it?

The canonical answer on the usage of "singular they" is related: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/48/is-there-a-correct-gender-neutral-singular-pronoun-his-versus-her-versus ; however, though it says Singular they enjoys a long history of usage in English, it doesn't provide any more detail than that, and simply defers to the Wikipedia article on the subject. — Dan Bron, Aug 04 '14 at 23:41
With that said, the very Wikipedia article referenced calls out Austen specifically in its section "Older usage by respected authors": "They" was already being used with a singular antecedent in the Middle English of the 14th century.It is found in the writings of many respected authors, including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Thackeray, and Shaw", so maybe we should mark this question as a dupe of the other? — Dan Bron, Aug 04 '14 at 23:44
@Dan: please make your comment an answer, it's acceptable. My question was related purely to the history of the usage of their so I don't think it's a dupe. Thanks for your references. — Honza Zidek, Aug 04 '14 at 23:57
I flagged it as a dupe already, so I don't know if it's kosher to answer as well. Maybe you can change the title to "history of usage of 'singular they'" or something, so it's clearly different from the other question? Then the mods can just ignore my flag. — Dan Bron, Aug 05 '14 at 00:01
@George: thanks for your link, I haven't realized it before how many occurences of singular they are in Jane Auste. — Honza Zidek, Aug 05 '14 at 00:02
@Dan: done :-) if you now will remove your dupe flag and post your answer? — Honza Zidek, Aug 05 '14 at 00:19
I didn't realize one could unflag something. I'd be happy to do so, I'm not sure how: when I click on the "flag" link, it seems I'm able to add additional flags, but not remove one I applied previously. Any pointers? — Dan Bron, Aug 05 '14 at 00:22
@Dan: sorry, I was wrong, undoing your flag is not possible; http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/87500/241944. So please at least post your answer. — Honza Zidek, Aug 05 '14 at 00:38

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

As the answer to the more general question of whether singular they is proper English notes, the construction enjoys a long history of usage in English.

In fact, the Wikipedia article on singular they has a section on the history of its use, and specifically calls out Austen as one of the respected, pre-modern authors who used they with a singular antecedent:

Older usage by respected authors

They was already being used with a singular antecedent in the Middle English of the 14th century. It is found in the writings of many respected authors, including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Thackeray, and Shaw:

"I would have every body marry if they can do it properly."— Austen, Mansfield Park (1814), quoted in Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage.

"Had the Doctor been contented to take my dining tables as any body in their senses would have done..."— Austen, Mansfield Park (1814)

History of usage of singular "they" (gender-neutral)

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