I like that in Battlestar Galactica, Sir is the honorific for all military officers. They use madame for the president, but the military calls everyone Sir.
this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2026
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Ok so reading the comments, from Appalachia, and I didn't see it about anyone specific.
So the reason why nothing seems correct is because nothing new will have the same level of cultural history. If you're trying to show social deference to people things like "friend" or "pal" won't work, and "chief" sounds too informal.
You can still use "sir" and "ma'am" under most circumstances, so the question is more about your circumstances.
Are you trying to find something that replaces those honorifics all together, or do you want a backup third option in case someone says they are non binary?
Are you still in the same culture, or have you moved to a culture that doesn't emphasize honorifics like you were raised with?
"OI CUNT" 🇦🇺
The scousers (people from Liverpool, England, UK) have a very useful one in their dialect, "Youse" (pronounced Ewes, like the sheep)
And it's gender neutral, but also double as a group pronoun
Youse gonna use that?
(Person, are you going to use that?)
Hey youse, heading out?
(Depends on context, can be singular, can be group, either "Person, are you going to go outside?" or "People, are you going to go outside?")
It's v useful
Pittsburg is similar. Yens
Huh, it's similar to the Glasgow, Scotland, UK gender neutral one, yons
Greetings, sentient!
Buddy, Friend, Majesty, Squire
"Hey"
Mage
...crap, I'm cis male and I wanna be addressed as "mage"...
You can just do that ya know. Just be a wizard. Tell people to address you as such. Don't even have to be trans you can change your name and everything
I've seen enough posts related to etymology or historical use of words where they, either misrepresent the facts to fit a narrative or just make shit up, that I try to look it up my self. I also find etymology fascinating so that helps.
In this case they are absolutely right.
Both Mr and. Mrs,ms are derived from master and mistress (teachers) and both of those words stem from the Latin word Magister.
Edit: fun fact the English verb stick is the same word as the noun stick and comes from the same origin the Germanic word stik which also meant a piece of wood and to pierce/adhere or sharp. But wait it's older than that the Latin word stigare also means pierce. And share the same ancestry, namely indo-european. Turns out we humans have been talking about sticks for a long time.
...why not just "magister" and avoid a word that already has very strong, current connotations with fantasy?
Let's hit "magister" and then work our way down. I swear to god I'd change the shit out of my pronouns to fit mage.
The issue, I guess, is that Mr./Ms. have had centuries to be normalized into common use, whereas "magister" still holds a bit of prestige or honor to it. I'm just spitballin'. I'm definitely going to read more into this when I have some time.
Although it was also my first choice, magister is masculine. Latin is a gendered language (with more than just m/f) and AFAIK magister isn't neutral.
I mean, mages are pretty cool. 🧙♂️
I just call everyone "comrade".
Fucker!
Just say Y'all, it pretty much covers that
I prefer "fellow human" spoken in a slightly suspicious manner.
Comrade
FWIW, Sir is gender neutral in the military — this came up in Star Trek Voyager, anyway. Basically if your senior officer isn’t male, they’re sir until they tell you otherwise.
Sir is gender neutral in fictional militaries. Every woman holding a commission I ever encountered was ma'am. Didn't matter the country.
Yes, Star Trek is fictional.
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S'mr'amr
RoboCop "citizen"
I like referring to all as boss or chief.
Sounds like something a food truck vendor selling spicy shawarmas would say.
Sounds like something a villain's goon would say.
Having worked in the retail sector for some time, I quickly learned that appearances are often deceiving after a few embarrassing blunders on my part. I taught myself to call everyone 'my friend'. I had no more problems after that.
Also if you have to hand someone off to another colleague, I find you can just use "we", and it still feels polite. At least compared to calling them "the customer" (clumsy) or "they" (weird, when they're right next to you). 😃
"So, we're looking for [product], and we need it to be [thing]. Oh, and we have a budget of £25."
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I love this question and the discourse it's spawned!
personally I'll use "friend" if I'm at all acquainted with the other person or bend over backwards to not use one if I'm not. not too hard to leave it out if you try, and like anything becomes second nature pretty quick.
that being said I do use "chef" a lot, especially the phrase "heard, chef!" and I haven't worked in a kitchen in almost a decade lol
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I was raised in southern hospitality, so I know exactly what you’re going through.
I just stopped using pronouns altogether.
“Excuse me” “Thank you” “I appreciate you” “Do you know the way to San Jose”
Turns out 99% of interactions don’t depend on what genitals a person’s rocking. I guess if you’re asked to identify a suspect in a crime it might help? Point being, stop focusing on their crotch and what they’re doing with it 😁 you’ve been trained to be weird about it.
'San' is gendered /s
You is a pronoun btw, just it's only used in specific contexts
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