- This word was used in a reddit post by a deaf person to refer to one of their friends that was not deaf. The word is slang used in the deaf community to refer to people that are not deaf and is similar to the word “deafies.” The word started as the root “hear,” since it describes a distinguishing feature of the group, then it was made into a noun by adding the suffix -ie to the word “hear” to form a noun that refers to a person that is not deaf.
Hearie
noun; derivation (Affixation)
A person that is able to hear (ie. not deaf).
Etymology : From Hear plus -ie, variant of -y, suffix indicating state, condition, or quality, from Anglo-French and Old French -é, from Latin -ia, Greek -ia, from PIE *-a-, suffix forming abstract or collective nouns (etymonline).
Source : “Again, the deafies are just thinking yet another person with a sign language question, the hearie can handle it.” (Reddit post: Speak English or GTFO - 11/2/2019)
Last modified: 14 December 2019