albethey

Likely from false assumptions about albeit, replacing it with they. The Oxford English Dictionary explains albeit as being from "all be it (that)" or in full "all though it be that". Originally, therefore, the impersonal "it" should have remained unchanged even when "albeit" followed a plural noun (and still today albeit is widely accepted due to lack of concise alternative).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɔːlˈbiðeɪ/

albethey

1. (rare, nonstandard) Although; despite (them, multiple things) being.
   • 1963, International Peace Research Association, International Peace Research Newsletter, vol. 14: 1– 6, page 38:

     Men felt that they were being deliberately excluded, other women felt this was the “separatist élitism” of which the women’s movement is so often accused. When a group of men did join us for a couple of sessions, there was a complete change in dynamic: it was necessary to have a chairperson, and to some of us it became clear yet again, that it is almost impossible to talk about your oppression with the oppressors (albethey potential or unconscious oppressors).

   • 1972, M. Abel of the East Asia Christian Conference, The Asian Meaning of Modernization: East Asia Christian Conference Studies‎, page 136:

     But we would submit that it is going much too far to claim that all secularization arises from biblical influences — albethey indirect or incognito in many cases.

   • 1976, European Centre for Leisure and Education, Society and Leisure (The Centre), page 97:

     When, for example, asked what they favoured most about living in the area, a number of residents mentioned “open spaces” (albethey vanishing) and “horses” (stabled at a nearby riding school).

   • 1977, Gileon Holroyd, Studies in Library Management (Shoe String Pr Inc, →ISBN), page 97:

     The absence of any well established union structure can severely inhibit and possibly damage a service standard by virtue of the resultant inaction on behalf of inadequately motivated staff. This will arise whenever there is a situation where the library policy is controlled by non-professionals, albethey democratically elected laymen, or whenever the library director is involved with policy making: both these factors have already been broached in a quotation above (29).

   • 2005, Laurence F. R. Grove, Text/Image Mosaics in French Culture: Emblems and Comic Strips (Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.; →ISBN (10), →ISBN (13)), page 108:

     …typical early issue of Le Journal de Mickey from the 1930s,³ of the six ‘bandes dessinées’ ⁴ four have domestic settings, albethey American. The strip entitled Pim Pam Poum (The Katzenjammer Kids), for example, revolves around the rude awakening elderly members of the family receive as a result of a goat being introduced into their bedroom.

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:albethey.