About

Enby is a slang term and neologism derived from the acronym for the LGBTQ+ term "Non-Binary," which is when someone does not identify as a man or woman. Enby people typically use "they/them" pronouns. The term is generally assumed to have been coined on Tumblr in 2013, a micro-blogging platform with an active LGBTQ+ user base.

Origin

According to Wiktionary, the earliest known use of the term "enby" on the internet is a September 10th, 2013, text post by Tumblr^[1] user @revolutionator. The post read, "I wish there was an nb equivalent to words like boys and girls / nb / enb / enbies," and gathered nearly 1,000 notes in 10 years (seen below, left). Urban Dictionary^[2] user kyej posted a definition for the term on November 1st, gathering over 19,000 upvotes and 15,000 downvotes in a similar timeframe (seen below, right).

The word "enby" is derived from the phonetic pronunciation of "NB," which stands for "non-binary."

Spread

Use of the word "enby" notably increased in 2018 with X^[3] user and actor Bex Taylor-Klaus making a post on July 29th, 2018, coming out as non-binary by using the word "enby," gathering over 14,000 likes in five years (seen below, left). On December 29th, 2019, X^[4] user @BovineBonita posted a grid of non-binary cartoon characters, saying "Animation in 2019 really said enby rights huh??" The post gathered over 4,000 likes in four years (seen below, right).

On November 26th, 2019, the Instagram^[5] page @not.so.smol.trans.girl posted a Swords United meme that gathered over 1,000 likes in four years (seen below, left). On December 8th, the Instagram^[6] page @nonbinaryunited posted a Galaxy Brain meme using the term enby, gathering over 1,000 likes in four years.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References