itself
pronCA, US, UK /ɪtˈsɛlf/ · AU /ɪtˈself/
Etymology From Middle English hit-self, equivalent to it + -self.
1
Neuter, Personal, Pronoun, Third person it; A thing as the object of a verb or preposition that also appears as the subject
- When the opportunity presented itself, no feasible course of action suggested itself (to us).
- The researchers posit that something they call the “hipster effect” asserts itself in human populations no matter how individualistic we imagine ourselves to be, because it’s individuality itself that sparks conformity.2014 December 2, David DiSalvo, “Are You Vulnerable to the Hipster Effect?”, in Psychology Today, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2025:
2
Emphatic, Neuter, Personal, Pronoun, Third person it; used to intensify the subject, especially to emphasize that it is the only participant in the predicate
- The door itself is quite heavy.
- Beautie alone is a ſoveraigne remedy againſt feare,griefe,and all melancholy fits; a charm,as Peter de la Seine and many other writers affirme,a banquet it ſelfe;he gives inſtance in diſcontented Menelaus that was ſo often freed by Helenas faire face: and ʰTully, 3 Tusc. cites Epicurus as a chiefe patron of this Tenent.1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 2, member 6, subsection iv, page 298:
2 more examples
- So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.1933 March 4, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 0:00:55 from the start, in Inaugural Address:
- The researchers posit that something they call the “hipster effect” asserts itself in human populations no matter how individualistic we imagine ourselves to be, because it’s individuality itself that sparks conformity.2014 December 2, David DiSalvo, “Are You Vulnerable to the Hipster Effect?”, in Psychology Today, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2025:
3
Archaic, Emphatic, Neuter, Personal, Pronoun, Third person it; used to refer back to an earlier subject
- The oil by degrees gets covered with a curdy mass, which after some time settles to the bottom, while itself becomes limpid and colorless.1842, Andrew Ure, A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines:
- Synonyms
- itsself
- Derived terms
- a house divided against itself cannot stand, being-for-itself, being-in-itself, dense-in-itself, end in itself, history repeats itself, in and of itself, in itself, in-itselfness, lend itself to, of itself, pay for itself, repeat itself, simplicity itself, suggest itself, the trash takes itself out, thing-in-itself, thing in itself, unto itself, write itself
- 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.