himself

See also: Himself

English

Alternative forms

• Himself (honorific)
• himselfe (obsolete)
• himselve (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English hymself, from Old English him selfum. Equivalent to him +‎ -self.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hɪmˈsɛlf/, /ɪ̈msɛlf/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: him‧self
• Rhymes: -ɛlf

Pronoun

himself (the third person singular, masculine, personal pronoun, reflexive form of he, feminine herself, neuter itself, plural themselves, gender-neutral singular himself or themselves or themself)

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

   He injured himself.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 7:14, column 2:

     Therefore the Lord himſelfe ſhal giue you a ſigne: […].

   • 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     The [Isaac] Newton that emerges from the [unpublished] manuscripts is far from the popular image of a rational practitioner of cold and pure reason.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. (Ireland, otherwise archaic) The subject or non-reflexive object of a predicate; he himself.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 7, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     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. (Ireland) 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?

Synonyms

• hisself
• hissen

Derived terms

• every man for himself
• give him enough rope and he'll hang himself
• he who digs a pit for others falls in himself

 

Translations

(reflexive) male person as the previously mentioned object

• Aghwan: 𐔼𐕖𐕒𐕡𐕎𐕖𐕒𐕡 (ičunču)
• 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)
• Finnish: itsensä (fi)
• French: lui-même (fr), à lui-même (fr), se (fr)
• German: sich (de)
• Greek:

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

• Hungarian: magát (hu)
• Khakas: позы (pozı)
• Latin: sē (la), sēsē, sibi, suī (la)
• Mauritian Creole: limem
• Navajo: tʼáá bí, tʼáá hó
• Ngazidja Comorian: enafsi ya hahe
• Northern Sami: iežas
• Norwegian: seg (no)
• Portuguese: se (pt), si (pt) (prepositional), a si mesmo
• Romani: pes

  Kalo Finnish Romani: pes

• 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)
• Slovak: sa (sk), seba
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: se

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

  Asalemi: (for all persons) اشتن (əštan)

• Tuvan: боду (bodu)
• Volapük: oki
• Yakut: бэйэтэ (beyete)
• Zazaki: eyeri m, ay f

(emphatic, exclusive) he

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

  Mandarin: 他自己 (zh) (tā zìjǐ)

• Czech: sám (cs)
• Dutch: zelf (nl), hijzelf (nl)
• Egyptian: (ḏs.f m)
• Finnish: itse (fi)
• French: lui-même (fr)
• German: er selbst
• Greek:

  Ancient: αὐτός (autós)

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

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} ipse
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} lui stesso
• Korean: ^{(please verify)} 그 남자 자진 (geu namja jajin)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ^{(please verify)} خۆی (xoy)

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

See also

English personal pronouns

Dialectal and obsolete or archaic forms are in italics.

			personal pronoun			possessive pronoun	possessive determiner
			subjective	objective	reflexive
first person	singular		I me (colloquial)	me	myself me mysen	mine	my mine (before vowels, archaic) me
	plural		we	us	ourselves ourself oursen	ours	our
second person	singular	standard, formal	you	you	yourself yoursen	yours yourn (obsolete outside dialects)	your
		archaic, informal	thou	thee	thyself theeself thysen	thine	thy thine (before vowels)
	plural	standard	you ye (archaic)	you	yourselves	yours yourn (obsolete outside dialects)	your
		colloquial	you all y'all you guys	you all y'all you guys	y'allselves	y'all's you guys' your guys' (proscribed)	y'all's your all's (nonstandard) you guys' your guys' (proscribed)
		informal / dialectal	(see list of dialectal forms at you and inflected forms in those entries)
third person	singular	masculine	he	him	himself hisself (archaic) hissen	his hisn (obsolete outside dialects)	his
		feminine	she	her	herself hersen	hers hern (obsolete outside dialects)	her
		neuter	it hit	it hit	itself hitself	its his (archaic)	its his (archaic) hits
		genderless	they	them	themself, themselves	theirs	their
		genderless, nonspecific (formal)	one	one	oneself	–	one's
	plural		they	them hem, 'em	themselves theirsen	theirs theirn (obsolete outside dialects)	their

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• Flemish, flemish, mehfils