Graffiti it is a rapidly developing art form whose value is highly contested and reviled by many authorities while also subject to protection, sometimes within the same jurisdiction. Both "graffiti" and its occasional singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word "graffiato" ("scratched"). "Graffiti" is applied in art history to works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into it. In ancient times
Singular they "that truck driver", "a runner I knew"), reading was slowed when compared with use of a gendered pronoun consistent with the "stereotypic gender" (e.g. "he" for a specific truck driver). The study concluded that "the increased use of singular "they" is not problematic for the majority of readers". The singular and plural use of "they" can be compared with the pronoun "you", which originally was only plural, but by about 1700 replaced "thou" for singular referents, while retaining the plural verb form. For "you", the singular reflexive pronoun ("yourself") is different from its plural reflexive pronoun ("yourselves"); with "they" one