Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Used as a modifier before a noun: his boots; his plans.
- pro. Used to indicate the one or ones belonging to him: If you can't find your hat, take his.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- The possessive (genitive) masculine (and formerly also neuter) of he.
- A perverted form of the genitive inflection -s, -'s, Middle English and early modern English -es, -is (see -es and -s), which was confused with the genitive pronoun his, and became common especially after nouns whose nominatives end in -S. This use was very frequent in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, particularly after Greek and Latin names in -es or -us, as Artaxerxes his crown, Brutus his virtue, etc. The use came to be recognized as erroneous, and died out in the first half of the eighteenth century.
- [The use naturally extended to the feminine gender and the plural number:
Wiktionary
- pro. Belonging to him.
- pro. Its; belonging to it. (Now only when implying personification.) [11th-17th c.]
- pro. Used erroneously in place of ’s after a noun, especially a masculine noun ending in s, to express the possessive case.
- pro. That which belongs to him; the possessive case of he, used without a following noun.
GNU Webster's 1913
- pro. Belonging or pertaining to
him ; -- used as a pronominal adjective or adjective pronoun; ; formerly used also for its, but this use is now obsolete. - pro. The possessive of
he .
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old English; see ko- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“That mother had no idea what Bailey had just been through, and his rugged appearance was only his proud testament to his life at that moment.”
“And his eyes go what ye'd call twilight misty as his croppy boy goes running over the field, his stick flickin at the grass seeds, and the soft sunshine tripping off his boots.”
“For a lifetime he balanced the trickle of his love, his thoughts, his hope ... his self ... into her ears, until she became his story.”
“Not to disparage teh Shakespeer guy or anybuddy in his era, but it seems to me that if u wanted to hurt teh other guy u would bite *his* thumb, not ur own.”
Hey, - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“So they found little old William Jarvis crumpled on his bedroom floor, fully clothed also; and _his _cheeks were badly scratched; and he was just as dead as his fellow butler below.”
“Well, I think the Warren pick was a perfect issue to make a better connection with, not the base or his campaigners like us or * his* voters, but the electorate.”
Dems Not Likely To Move Any Time Soon On "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
“First Edwards and his mudcat, now Obama and * his* staff ...”
Obama Issues New Statement Taking Full Responsibility For "Punjab" Screwup
“This whole Rod Stewart thing is astounding, by the way — corroborated in Wikipedia in a paragraph that includes this hilarious line: “..his passion for the hobby has been blamed for contributing to the end of his second marriage.””
Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Coolest Stuff I Have Worked With In A While
“Actually, the opponent, Dan Meuser, occasionally gives to politicians who are important to his company, but 91 percent of his personal donations go to Republicans.”
“To be honest, I was jealous of his going back to school while I stayed home working on *his* novels.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘his’.
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On with their heads!
Words that make other words with the addition of one letter at the beginning. The resulting words are tagged "behead".
men, his, yes, any, iota, limb, aged, laid, land, lead, read, word and 315 more...
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3 Letter Words
A list of English words that are three letters long.
ace, act, ade, ado, add, ads, age, ago, ail, air, aim, all and 397 more...
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core words
my, I, mine, your, his, hers, him, her, their, theirs, our, ours and 34 more...
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