Greeting a crowd of people today with “Hello, ladies and gentlemen” sounds old-fashioned and could even be seen as rude in certain modern contexts. While it can be tricky to keep up with changing cultural norms, sticking to gender-neutral ways of addressing a group of people can be taken as a sign of respect for new friends and acquaintances. And that’s the purpose of a greeting — to welcome people to your home, a meeting, an event, or whatever else the situation entails, with warmth and respect. The next time you’re addressing a mixed-gender group of people, or perhaps you don’t know the gender of everyone there, try to use one of these gender-neutral options.
Friends
A friend is “a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection,” but the word can also be used as a polite form of address for “an acquaintance or a stranger one comes across.” It comes from the Old English freond, meaning “one attached to another by feelings of personal regard and preference.”
Y'all
“Y’all” is a contraction of “you all,” and it emerged from the Southern U.S. English dialect, and likely more specifically AAVE. While it used to be seen as an exclusively Southern, somewhat hokey pronoun, it has gained more widespread popularity in recent years. Anyone can use “y’all” as a quick non-gendered replacement for “you guys” or “ladies.”
People
“People” just means “human beings in general or considered collectively,” so it’s among the most neutral words that can be used to refer to a group. It first appeared around 1300 as “peple,” meaning “humans, persons in general, men and women.” It came from the Old French pople, which emerged out of the Latin populus, meaning “a people, nation, body of citizens; a multitude, crowd, throng.”
Folks
“Folks” is also a safe bet, as it just means “humans in general.” It comes from the Old English “folc,” meaning “common people, laity; people, nation, tribe,” which evolved from the Proto-Germanic fulka-. It may have originally meant “host of warriors,” with possible roots in the Old Norse folk (“army, detachment”) or Old Church Slavonic pluku (“division of an army”).
Everyone
This compound word is certainly reliable, as it first appeared in English around 1200. The adjective “every” — as a way to articulate “each” — comes from a contraction of Old English “æfre ælc” (“each of a group”), literally “every each.”
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