themself
pron/ðɛmˈsɛlf/
Etymology From Middle English theimself. Equivalent to them + -self. Reinforced by analogy with the singular-plural distinction between yourself and yourselves.
1
Pronoun, Proscribed, Sometimes, Third person The reflexive form of they, the third-person singular personal pronoun. The single person previously mentioned, as the object of a verb or following a preposition (also used for emphasis).
- Someone could hurt themself.
- Anyone who wants a car like mine can buy one themself.
4 more examples
- The 10th of April the Austrian General Göcz was defeated by Görgey at Vácz, where Leiningen highly distinguished themself.1850, Theresa Pulszky, Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady, page 275
- After infinite wanderings the little note has reached us. […] Almost any one under the circumstances would have doubted if it were theirs, or indeed if they were themself—but to us it was clear.1881 September 24, Emily Dickinson, “To the Misses ——”, in Mabel Loomis Todd, editor, Letters of Emily Dickinson, volume II, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1894, →OCLC, pages 290–291:
- […] they woulden't ^([sic]) always be trying to make Themself Look Diffarunt ^([sic]) from what nature made Them.1899 December 6, “Paw Baldness”, in Shiner Gazette:
- Boys like to talk about themselves—much more than girls. A girl once, named Helen Walcott, told me (and she was the most popular debutante in Washington one winter) that as soon as she got her man talking about himself she had him cinched and harnessed—they give themself away.c. 1915, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “Babes in the Woods”, in John Kuehl, editor, The Apprentice Fiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1909–1917, New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, published 1965, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 125:
2
Nonstandard, Proscribed, Sometimes, Third person Synonym of themselves (the third-person plural).
- […] and the same is here thought of al men to be so vailable and sufficient, as can be required, accept and take the said commission and dispensation so thankfully, and themself so satisfied with the same, that they repute and think themself not only singularly obstringed and bound to the Popes […]1822, John Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials, Relating Chiefly to Religion, page 119:
- Antony.- That fear I much, cousin, too. But thereby shall it well, as I said, appear, that seemed they never so good and virtuous before, and flattered they themself with never so gay a gloss of good and gracious purpose that they kept their goods for, yet were their hearts inwardly in the deep sight of God, not sound and sure, such as they should be, and as peradventure some had themself weened they had been, […]1847, Thomas More, A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation, page 237
- Synonyms
- themselves, theirself, theirselves, himself, herself, thonself, other attested gender-neutral pronouns