Um vs Em - What's the difference?
um | em |
(chiefly, American) Expression of confusion or space filler in conversation. See uh.
(chiefly, American)
*1963 , (Kurt Vonnegut), Cat's Cradle , Dell Publishing Co., Inc., p. 65:
*:"About the same, wherever you go," he agreed.
*:"Um ," I said.
To make the um sound to express confusion or hesitancy.
(typography) A unit of measurement equal to the height of the type in use.
(neologism) them (singular).
* {{quote-book
, date = 1986-04-01
, title = The Joy of TeX: A Gourmet Guide to Typesetting with the AMS-TeX macro package
, first = Michael
, last = Spivak
, location = Providence
, publisher = American Mathematical Society
, page = 68
, isbn = 0821829998
, id =
, lccn = 85007506
, url = http://books.google.com/books?id=kXzxAAAAMAAJ&q=up+to+Em+to+indicate+Eir
, passage = If the author uses such notation, it should be up to Em to indicate Eir intentions clearly, but there's no harm checking first.
}}
* {{quote-book
, year = 1997
, title = Doom Patrols : A Theoretical Fiction About Postmodernism
, first = Steven
, last = Shaviro
, publisher = Serpent's Tail
, location = London
, isbn = 9781852424305
, lccn = 9668813
, page = 138
, passage = I may become quite intimate with someone, spend hours with em every night, and yet not have the slightest idea what eir voice sounds like, or what eir RL body looks, feels, and smells like.
}}
* {{quote-book
, year = 2000
, chapter = Ethics, Plugged and Unplugged: The Pegagogy of Disorderly Conduct
, first = Jane
, last = Love
, title = Taking flight with OWLs: Examining Electronic Writing Center Work
, editors = Inman, James A.; Sewell, Donna N.
, publisher = Taylor & Francis
, isbn = 0805831711
, id =
, page = 193
, passage = E invites em to consider how ey represent emselves(SIC), and in so doing, e focuses eir attention on the ethics that make human relations possible.
, url = http://books.google.com/books?id=aFKqSzIxCLkC&pg=PA193
}}
* {{quote-web
, date = 2011-03-15
, title = 89: New Friend
, blog = Riot Nrrd
, first = RJ
, last = Edwards
, url = http://www.riotnrrdcomics.com/2011/03/89-new-friend/
, accessdate = 2012-10-06
, passage = And ultimately: I think my readers are mature enough that knowing eir assigned gender is not going to give them an “excuse” to misgender em .
}}
(Scotland, Ireland) a form of hesitant speech, or an expression of uncertainty; um; umm; erm
As prepositions the difference between um and em
is that um is around, about (sometimes in combination with bi) while em is around, round.As adverbs the difference between um and em
is that um is around, about while em is around, about.As a conjunction um
is in order to.um
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) um, from (etyl) um, . More at (l).Alternative forms
* (l), (l)Etymology 2
(en)Alternative forms
* (l)Interjection
(en interjection)- Um , I don’t know.
- Let’s see... um ... how about this?
Verb
(umm)Etymology 3
A Latin-script rendering of .Noun
(um)Anagrams
* English two-letter words ----em
English
Etymology 1
The typographic em is named after the metal type for the capital (M) in early printing, whose body was square (the printed letter M is almost never one em in width).Noun
(en noun)- The ems and ens at the beginnings and ends.
Synonyms
* (typography) quad, em quad * (typography) mutton, mutDerived terms
* emcee * em dashSee also
*Etymology 2
(Spivak pronouns) Coined by Christine M. Elverson by removing the "th" from (them), perhaps influenced by (term, 'em).Pronoun
Synonyms
* him or her, * (singular) them * (neologism) hirDerived terms
* (neologism) emselfSee also
* other gender-neutral pronounsEtymology 3
Interjection
(en interjection)- She was going to, em ... the salon, I think.