Himself
pron1
Honorific Honorific alternative letter-case form of himself, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.
himself
pronalso spelled Himself/hɪmˈsɛlf/ · /ɪ̈mˈsɛlf/
Etymology From Middle English hymself, from Old English him selfum. Equivalent to him + -self.
1
Masculine, Personal, Pronoun, Third person Him; the male object of a verb or preposition that also appears as the subject
- He injured himself.
- Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
1 more example
- One Terrorgram user livestreamed himself stabbing five people outside of a mosque in Turkey, she said, and a 19-year-old Slovakian man praised the group in a manifesto before killing two people at an LGBTQ bar in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.2024 September 9, Hannah Rabinowitz, “Alleged leaders of White supremacist group charged in effort to encourage terrorism and hate crimes”, in CNN:
2
Emphatic, Masculine, Personal, Pronoun, Third person He; used as an intensifier, often to emphasize that the referent is the exclusive participant in the predicate
- He was injured himself.
- Therefore the Lord himſelfe ſhal giue you a ſigne:[…].1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 7:14, column 2:
1 more example
- The [Isaac] Newton that emerges from the [unpublished] manuscripts is far from the popular image of a rational practitioner of cold and pure reason. The architect of modern science was himself not very modern. He was obsessed with alchemy.2014 June 21, “Magician’s brain”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8892:
3
Ireland, Masculine, Personal, Pronoun, Third person The subject or non-reflexive object of a predicate; he himself.
Otherwise archaic
- Yet it is that himselfe had been liberally gratified by his Unkle with militarie rewards, before ever he went to warres.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 7, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
- With shame remembers, while himself was one / Of the same herd, himself the same had done.Sir John Denham (1614-1669)
1 more example
- Dennis: His glass is there and himself is in the toilet.1998, Kirk Jones, Waking Ned, Tomboy films:
4
Ireland, Masculine, Personal, Pronoun, Third person The subject or non-reflexive object of a predicate; he (used of upper-class gentlemen, or sarcastically, of men who imagine themselves to be more important than others)
- Has himself come down to breakfast yet?
- Have you seen himself yet this morning?
- Derived terms
- every man for himself, give someone enough rope and they'll hang themself, he who digs a pit for others falls in himself
- Related terms
55 terms
Ime, me, myselfmemysen, mine, mymineme, we, us, ourselvesourselfoursen, oursourn, our, you, yourselfyoursen, yoursyourn, your, thou, thee, thyselftheeselfthysen, thine, thythine, youye, yourselves, you ally'all you guys yous, y'allselves, all yours y'all's you guys' your guys', all your y'all's your all's you guys' your guys', he, him, himselfhisselfhissen, hishisn, his, she, her, herselfhersen, hershern, ithit, itselfhitself, itshis, itshishits, they, them, themself, themselves, theirs, their, one, oneself, –, one's, themhem, 'em, themselvestheirsen, theirstheirn, The following table shows a list of English personal pronoun, including archaic and dialectal forms. Dialectal and obsolete, archaic forms are in italics. 1 See Appendix:English third-person singular pronouns for attested neopronoun.