The unknown quantity

This Gender-Neutral Word Could Replace ‘Mr.’ and ‘Ms.’ | TIME

"If you don’t feel like labeling yourself a Mr. or a Ms. and would rather leave your gender unknown or undeclared, Mx. (pronounced like mix) is a gender-neutral option. According to Dictionary.com lexicographer Jane Solomon, this honorific has one of those rare, very-clear etymologies: Dating back to at least the late 1970s, the M was taken from the first letters of those gendered honorifics, and the x was attached to suggest an unknown quantity or thing, like it might in algebra class."

"O, brave new world
that has such people in’t!"

― William Shakespeare, The Tempest