Singleton and Singletype (Plural Etymology)

[lb_lee]

Sneak: *climbs out of a hole, holding records* o_o Guys... I got sucked into researching the various terms plurals have used over the years for singlets.

Okay, so there's like, a FLURRY of terms that all crop up in my records in 1992: single, single person (SP), singlet... the only terms that I could first find from other years were singleton (which I could prove appeared by 1991) and singletype (which seems to have come from a lost-to-the-sands-of-time argument on Dark Personalities in 2001 and never really broke containment).

I haven't dug super deeply into single and single person (just because they're such common words, you can't easily just search for them), but here are my quick and dirty notes on singleton and singletype!

singleton (noun)

Meaning: “a non-multiple person” (Pia, 1991). “People with one or fewer personalities” (Hocking, 1992, pg. 10). See also: singlet.
Coiner: as far as we know, nobody. This term was general purpose; original meaning includes “something occurring or existing singly and not as one of a pair or of a group” (Webster’s New World Disctionary, 1970) and it appears in multi-ish speculative fiction from 1988 (Jane Yolen’s Sister Light, Sister Dark, pg. 75). We’ve seen at least three different people saying that folks don’t like “singleton” because it reminds them condescendingly of “simpleton” (Asterisms, 2007: https://multiplicity-archives.dreamwidth.org/600805.html?thread=9771749#cmt9771749 [locked comment]; Amorpha, 2019: https://lb-lee.dreamwidth.org/1007334.html?thread=5735654#cmt5735654; Crisses, 2019: http://web.archive.org/web/20190716102919/https://kinhost.org/Main/SingularEntities) so hey, maybe that’s why the term lost popularity!
When: by 1991
Where: general use? → BBS → Anachronic Army/Kinhost → ?
Rise and fall

• 1991 (September?): Jacklyn Pia uses the term in her book MPD self-help book, Multiple Personality Gift. She clearly doesn’t expect the term to be instantly known, since she immediately defines it: “singletons (a non-multiple person).” Paper copies are unfindable, but some people uploaded the text online. (https://www.oocities.org/heartland/meadows/6174/mpg.html)
  
• 1992-07: used multiple times by Sandra Hocking and Company in Living With Your Selves: a survival manual for people with multiple personalities.
  
• 1994-01-24: First instance we can find of someone using the term on the private BBS records of the Love, Galaxy, given to us by Astraea. The first user who says it, Jim an’ the kidz for Grounded Eagle, say “We go to our therapist for those. We not sure a singleton nose enuff to tell us,” on private BBS records of the Love Galaxy, given to us by Astraea. Their conversand, the seeker, responds in turn, but clearly hasn’t heard the term before, since they say “as far as singletons [go] (i thought that was cute by you, and i dont [sic] mean that as derogatory).” Astraea respond a day after that using the term as well, but “singlet” does predate “singleton” in use on that BBS.
  
• 1995-01-06, being used on alt.support.dissociation (Ma/ire).
  
• 1995-02, being used on Many Voices, Robin et al. writes “I started with really small things that most singletons take for granted” (pg. 13; no relation to the UK Robyn in 2000).
  
• 1995-05-06, DrOnyx@aol.com in a “PC AND THE MENTALLY ILL” message on the WITCHUNT mailing list (“information about the modern version fo the witch hunts: ritual (and pseudo ritual) sexual abuse trials and those who have been wrongfully imprisoned by them”) quotes chapter and verse from an a “list of definitions (‘Read Them, Get Used to Them’) in the current [now lost] local newsletter, Vision's Gateway, written by Survivor Esodia Amne”: “Singleton - An individual who is just that - an individual. A person who, even though they have different moods, can be forgetful, and can make up another voice, is still not a Multiple.” DrOnyx adds, “Common courtesy suggests one should refer to people in the way that they prefer. What I object to in political correctness speech codes is the assumption that there is consensus among the people we are trying to shield from injury through continual linguistic tinkering.” This is our first known instance of the term breaking containment from the multi scene, and different folks on the mailing list will use the term (often with disdain) up through 1997. (The list starts in 1993 and goes down in 1999.)
  
• 1996-03-22: On the private Witchunt mailing list, a woman named Diana who describes having been abused in therapy reviles the Troops for Truddi Chase: “Ms Chase has been adament [sic] in her refusal to integrate her 'troops'. And why should she? If integrated she would be just like the rest of us, right? Where would her uniqueness go? And so, the 'multiples' on prodigy, ramble on in their so-called 'mulitiplicity'... feeling sorry for us 'singletons' out there who have no idea what it is like to be multiple… Pardon me... but the bullshit level is so high on prodigy, and so high in Ms Chase's book… If the woman wanted to get 'well'... why not get 'well' and integrate. It's obvious she prefers her illness to wellness.” Diana states “ I, too, was sympathetic with Ms Chase's plight, when I first read her book, when I was under the influence of my former therp [therapist] and thought I had 'people' inside…” so this may well be a case of abusive therapy turning someone sour or self-hate projected outward.
  
• 2000-03, it’s used by Robyn (an integrated former multiple) in First Person Plural, a UK newsletter for “Dissociators and their Allies”: “Life as a singleton can feel so lonely and very, very peculiar. It is me, who treasured our multiplicity the most, that has ended up so very alone; feeling an even greater sense of unbelonging than ever - at home no more in the multiple world nor yet in the alien singleton one” (pg. 6) So the term is being used outside the US by now!
  
• By 2001-02-18, it’s in Crisses’ FAQ.
  
• By 2001-05-17, it’s in Anachronic Army’s glossary.
  
• It is not in Pavilion Hall’s 2002 May glossary. Whether this is due to political reasons or lack of use is unknown.
  
• 2002-08-07, it’s used by Riesz and Tomoyo in “clown to the left of us, jokers to the right” in an essay on soulbonding, multiplicity, and medians. This is further sign of the term breaking containment, though Eclective will identify as multiple and plural as well later on. (https://web.archive.org/web/20020918063730/http://childofmana.tripod.com:80/multiplemidcont-intro.htm)
  
• It is not in Astraea’s 2003 glossary. Whether this is due to political reasons or lack of use is unknown.
  
• 2004-03-30: katjaxkatja posts on Livejournal comm plural-living concerns about parenting while plural: “would we have to pretend to be a singleton until they're old enough to understand that it might not be safe to talk about having a multiple parent? […] we're really afraid someone would try to take our kids away from us if they found out about us, especially since we're also poly and queer.” (“update on the cleaning stuff and another question” https://plural-living.livejournal.com/8591.html)
  
• 2004-05-03, it’s mentioned in Eclective’s glossary, though not in its own entry. Eclective says they find “single” or “singlet” the most neutral term.
  
• 2006-04-26: in a locked post on multiconnected on Livejournal, a user mentions having a “singleton” boyfriend. This user mentions having a vessel in their early twenties, so the term is still in use by younger folks! (https://multiconnected.livejournal.com/2061.html)
  
• 2007-07-29, used for the first time on the Livejournal multiplicity comm. (zamisista “and another thing” https://multiplicity-archives.dreamwidth.org/617569.html)
  
• 2007-07-30: a self-identified “singleton” says hello on the Livejournal comm ljcoffeehouse, saying “it’s only recently I’ve heard about soulbonding,” so clearly the term is being used in soulbonding circles and has spread to singlet friends of theirs. (http://ljcoffeehouse.livejournal.com/108849.html)
  
• 2010-07-01: a singleton going by bellaforte posts on LJ comm multiconnected, writes about their multi partner, “I wouldn't feel comfortable with a singleton partner who ignored some aspect of me... so why would I ignore any aspect of them who has a desire to interact with me? […] For multiples with singleton partners, how comfortable are you with your partners knowing everyone in the system?” (https://multiconnected.livejournal.com/8610.html?view=comments)
  
• Up until 2011-11-28, alt.support.dissociation still uses the term, though that’s the last I find of it even there (Hannah, quoted in https://groups.google.com/g/alt.support.dissociation/c/2Vw8DMqiGro/m/cUp-s5uwq68J)
  
• 2014-02-06, the last notation of it being used on multiplicity (10101110, “souls,” locked post https://multiplicity-archives.dreamwidth.org/1036525.html)
  
• Between 2017-08-06 and 26, Astraea inexplicably re-add it to their glossary. (https://web.archive.org/web/20170826102804/http://astraeasweb.net/plural/glossary.html)
  
• By 2021-01-31, it’s on Pluralpedia, which means that this scrappy little term has been hanging on by the skin of its teeth this whole time! It doesn’t get used often, but it has yet to officially disappear! (http://web.archive.org/web/20210209163322/https://pluralpedia.org/w/Singlet)
  

singletype (noun)

Meaning: “a non-multiple person” (Pia, 1991). “People with one or fewer personalities” (Hocking, 1992, pg. 10). Identical meaning but supposedly less offensive than singlet.
Coiner: Dark Personalities?
When?: 2001-2002.
Rise and fall: Nobody used this term. Not alt.support.dissociation, not Many Voices, not the BBS records… in all the multi records we’ve hoarded like a dragon, the term only comes up in the following places:

• 2001-05-19: the Dark Personalities terminology glossary: “Many find this term [singlet] derogatory, so the term singletype was suggested as an alternative.” No other details are given. This glossary is last archived on 2002/12/24.
  
• 2001-07-01: on the multiplicity Livejournal comm, a user named Caitlin says, “I wonder sometimes, though, if perhaps we ARE a singletype or something and all this is just a figment of my imagination.” (https://multiplicity-archives.dreamwidth.org/6137.html)
  
• 2004-05-03: Eclective’s .s o u l // whispers glossary makes note that “singletype” exists (under its “singlet” definition) but it specifically mentions Dark Personalities so presumably it pulled the singletype term from there.
  
• 2007-06-22: also on the multiplicity LJ comm, a user named lgrau asks (in a locked post), “What term do you use to refer to people who are not plural? I've heard ‘singlet’ (in Australia, a singlet is an article of clothing commonly called an undershirt! /trivia), ‘singleton’, ‘singletype’, ‘single personality disorder’, ‘monomind’, ‘one-mind’, and a bunch of others.” Not a single commenter responds saying they use “singletype.”
  
• In short: this term seems to have been solely part of the Dark Personalities glossary (and mailing list?) and never reached success much of anywhere else. It may have been coined specifically due to a kerfluffle there, now lost to the sands of time?