himself

See also: Himself

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hɪmˈsɛlf/, /ɪ̈msɛlf/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlf
• Hyphenation: him‧self

Pronoun

himself (the third person singular, masculine, personal pronoun, reflexive form of he, Feminine herself, neuter (nonhuman) itself, neuter (human) himself, plural themselves)

1. (reflexive) Him; the male object of a verb or preposition that also appears as the subject

   He injured himself.‎

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 2, in The Celebrity:

     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.

2. (emphatic) He; used as an intensifier, often to emphasize that the referent is the exclusive participant in the predicate

   He was injured himself.‎

   • Bible, Isaiah vii. 14

     The Lord himself shall give you a sign.

   • 2014 June 21, “Magician’s brain”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8892:

     The [Isaac] Newton that emerges from the [unpublished] manuscripts is far from the popular image of a rational practitioner of cold and pure reason.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.

3. (now archaic or nonstandard) The subject or non-reflexive object of a predicate; "he himself".
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.7:

     Yet it is that himselfe had been liberally gratified by his Unkle with militarie rewards, before ever he went to warres.

   • Sir John Denham (1614-1669)

     With shame remembers, while himself was one / Of the same herd, himself the same had done.

   • 1998, Kirk Jones, Waking Ned, Tomboy films

     Dennis: His glass is there and himself is in the toilet.

4. Alternative spelling of Himself

Synonyms

• hisself

See also

English personal pronouns

Number	Person	Type	Subject	Objective	Reflexive	Possessive adjective	Possessive pronoun
Singular	First	—	I	me	myself	my, mine (archaic)	mine
	Second	—	you	you	yourself	your	yours, yourn (obsolete outside dialects)
		Archaic	thou	thee	thyself, theeself	thy, thine	thine
	Third	Masculine	he	him	himself, hisself (archaic)	his	his, hisn (obsolete outside dialects)
		Feminine	she	her	herself	her	hers, hern (obsolete outside dialects)
		Neuter	it		itself	its	its
		Indefinite	one		oneself	one's	—
Plural	First	—	we	us	ourselves	our	ours, ourn (obsolete outside dialects)
	Second	—	you, ye (archaic)	you	yourselves	your	yours, yourn (obsolete outside dialects)
	Third	—	they	them	themselves	their	theirs, theirn (obsolete outside dialects)

Translations

(reflexive) male person as the previously mentioned object

• Belarusian: сябе́ (sjabjé) (accusative, genitive), сабе́ (sabjé) (dative, locative), сабо́й (sabój) (instrumental); -цца (-cca) (verb ending)
• Catalan: es (ca)
• Czech: se (cs), sebe (cs)
• Dutch: zich (nl), zichzelf (nl)
• Egyptian: ḏzf:
• Finnish: itsensä (fi)
• French: lui-même (fr), à lui-même (fr), se (fr)
• German: sich (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἑαυτόν (heautón), ἑαυτῷ (heautôi), ἑαυτοῦ (heautoû)

• Latin: sē (la)/sēsē, sibi, suī (la)
• Mauritian Creole: limem
• Navajo: tʼáá bí, tʼáá hó

• Ngazidja Comorian: enafsi ya hahe
• Novial: se
• Portuguese: se (pt), si (pt) (prepositional), a si mesmo
• Romanian: se (ro)
• Russian: сам (ru) m (sam), себя́ (ru) (sebjá) (genitive case, accusative case), себе́ (ru) (sebé) (dative case, prepositional case), собо́й (ru) (sobój) (instrumental case)
• Scots: himsel
• Scottish Gaelic: e (non-emphatic), esan (emphatic)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: se

• Spanish: él mismo, sí mismo
• Swedish: sig (sv)
• Talysh:

  Asalemi: (for all persons) اشتن (əštan)

• Volapük: oki
• Zazaki: eyeri m, ay f

(emphatic, exclusive) he

• American Sign Language: A@Chesthigh SmallFrontandback
• Arabic: نَفْسَهُ m (nafsahu)
• Belarusian: ён сам m (jón sam)
• Catalan: mateix (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 他自己 (zh) (tā zìjǐ)

• Czech: sám (cs)
• Dutch: zelf (nl), hijzelf (nl)
• Egyptian: 𓆓𓋴 𓆑 m (ḏs.f) (root ḏs takes suffix pronouns, e.g. herself ḏs.s)
• Finnish: itse (fi)
• French: lui-même (fr)
• German: er selbst

• Greek:

  Ancient: αὐτός (autós)

• Japanese: 彼自身 m (かれじしん, kare-jishin)
• Latin: ipse (la)
• Latvian: viņš pats m
• Norman: li-mesme (Guernsey)
• Portuguese: ele mesmo
• Romanian: el însuși m
• Russian: он сам m (on sam)
• Scots: himsel
• Scottish Gaelic: esan
• Slovak: on sám m
• Spanish: él mismo
• Ukrainian: він сам m (vin sam)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Hungarian: ^{(please verify)} maga (hu)
• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} ipse
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} lui stesso

• Korean: ^{(please verify)} 그 남자 자진 (geu namja jasin)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: ^{(please verify)} خۆی (xoi)

• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} sig själv (1, injured himself), ^{(please verify)} själv (sv) (1, was injured), ^{(please verify)} honom själv, ^{(please verify)} han själv (2)

External links

• “himself” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “himself” in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: being · day · through · #116: himself · go · how · long

Anagrams

• flemish, Flemish