Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- pro. That one identical with him:
- pro. Used reflexively as the direct or indirect object of a verb or the object of a preposition: He congratulated himself.
- pro. Used for emphasis: He himself found the courage.
- pro. Used in an absolute construction: In the black himself, he could offer financial assistance to his cousin.
- pro. His normal or healthy condition or state: He's feeling himself again. See Usage Note at myself.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- An emphatic or reflexive form of third personal pronoun masculine, either nominative or objective. In the nominative it is always used, for emphasis, in apposition to he or to a noun, usually expressed, but sometimes only understood; in the objective it is used alone or in apposition to him or to a noun: as, he himself did it; it was himself (he himself) that did it; he did it for himself, or for the man himself; let him do it himself; he came to himself.
- The neuter similarly used. Now itself.
- The dative (objective) plural, similarly used. Now themselves.
Wiktionary
- pro. reflexive him; the male object of a verb or preposition that also appears as the subject
- pro. emphatic he; used as an intensifier, often to emphasize that the referent is the exclusive participant in the predicate
- pro. The subject or non-reflexive object of a predicate; "he himself".
GNU Webster's 1913
- pro. An emphasized form of third person masculine pronoun; -- used as a subject usually with
he ; ; used alone in the predicate, either in the nominative or objective case. - pro. One's true or real character; one's natural temper and disposition; the state of being in one's right or sane mind (after unconsciousness, passion, delirium, or abasement).
- prep. obsolete Themselves. See hemself.
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old English himselfum : him, him; see him + selfum, dative of self, self; see self. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Note that in ˜Pat thinks Chris treated himself/him™, the antecedent of ˜himself™ must be the subject of ˜treated™, while the antecedent of ˜him™ must not be.”
“The slaveholder, in making out his own title to himself, makes out the title of every human being to _himself_.”
“_No man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself_.”
“Mrs. Browning, usually a better spokesman for the typical English poet than is Browning himself, likewise conceives it the artist's duty to show us his own nature, to be "greatly _himself always_, which is the hardest thing for a man to be, perhaps.”
“It is the habit of men of all nations to want to have things both ways; the Englishman is unfortunately so unable to express himself, _even to himself_, that he has never realized this truth, much less confessed it -- hence his appearance of hypocrisy.”
New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 3, June, 1915 April-September, 1915
“He was deeply superstitious, and while he could and did change the bottles and place the poison within his cousin's reach, while he placed the rusty pin in the crutch where it would inflict a wound on Zaidos 'body, while he could plan endlessly to rid himself of his cousin, he would not _himself_ directly aim the blow or fire the deadly shot.”
“[The sense is clearly _draw himself out, release himself_; but K.B. and Speght throw no light on the word.]”
“No respect is paid to any person; the cobler on that day thinks himself equal to the parson, who generally gets mounted like the rest of his flock; whilst one of his porters _boasts and prides himself_ in having, but just before, got the _Squire_ across the pole.”
“He could not realize how true to _himself_ he had been that afternoon, or how truly the impulse that had prompted him to deny his calling was an instinct of his own strong manhood -- the instinct to be accepted or rejected for what he was within himself, rather than for the mere accident of his calling and position in life.”
“Hence the importance of knowing himself, and hence the definition of philosophy as a man's _knowledge of himself_.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘himself’.
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EN - Glasgow stop list
Words to be replaced by a paragraph mark if you are after terms and MWEs.
yours, yourself, yet, your, without, you, within, will, yourselves, would, why, with and 291 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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TN5 Lesson 59
forgot, door, bell, ring, rang, awake, almost, physics, final, flunk, hard, pass and 25 more...
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Tunie: Helplessly Hoping
One of the most attractively alliterative, evanescently evocative and hauntingly melodic tunes ever written. By Stephen Stills.
Helplessly Hoping, Her Harlequin Hovers nearby...awaiting ...lost, linger, lady, loose, lying, love, cost, confusion, certain, something, see, stairway and 17 more...
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OM2 Lesson 15
scream, carrot, slice, cut, myself, pot, pan, burn, youself, tell you what, treat, ourselves and 20 more...
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Telemachus
The most frequently used words in Ulysses episode 1.
asked, face, god, kinch, hands, eyes, mother, sir, sea, turned, voice, himself and 5 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for himself.
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