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He/she means the Soviet astronomers called themselves cosmonomers. Like astronauts and cosmonauts, har har.

I don't think that's an actual word. Perhaps a mistranslation?

https://yandex.ru/search/?text=%22%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BC%D...

> He/she

Use "they" when you do not know the subjects gender/sex/whatever. Much cleaner to look at and read.

I considered "they" but worried that it could be parsed as coreferential with matrix12's "they," so I used he/she which, because it is singular, refers unambiguously to the previous speaker, matrix12 himself/herself.

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