tonsi
  | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈton |
|---|---|
| Usage | 2023: Common4, Widespread6 (83% ↘︎ )2022: Widespread (86%) |
| Book and era | nimi ku suli (post-pu, "honorary nimi pu") |
| Part of speech | Content word |
| Codepoint | U+F197E |
tonsi is a post-pu word mainly referring to non-binary gender, coordinate with meli for femininity and mije for masculinity. It was coined in 2019 by jan inwin.
Adoption
The speaking community widely considers tonsi to be a crucial addition to Toki Pona, referring to it as an honorary nimi pu to give it equal consideration to meli and mije in spite of pu-rism. In the "Notes on lipu pu" section of Toki Pona Dictionary, jan Sonja endorses the effort:
At this point, meli and mije have been taught. A third word, tonsi, has been created by the community of Toki Pona speakers in a grassroots project, and I support it. See the dictionary part of this book for definitions.
This is not to say that all non-binary and gender-nonconforming people identify with tonsi. Beyond personal opinions on the word, some speakers don't use tonsi by virtue of avoiding gender words altogether.
Semantic space
tonsi generally means non-binary or gender-nonconforming.
Some speakers use tonsi with the alternative meaning of transgender. This is contentious as some non-binary people do not identify with the trans label, and they and binary trans people may not want their experiences to be conflated. Due to the core definition of tonsi, describing binary trans people as meli tonsi or mije tonsi might be construed to imply that they are not fully women or men, especially as there is no coordinate term to specify cisgender meli and mije.
According to the data in Toki Pona Dictionary, tonsi has also been used to describe intersexuality.