Definitions

Sorry, no definitions found. Check out and contribute to the discussion of this word!

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word his-self.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • (pronoun) - A courtier will say, "Let him do it himself," but the Cockney has it, "Let him do it his-self." Here the latter comes nearest to the truth, though both he and courtier are wrong, for the grammatical construction should be, "Let he do it his-self," or by a transposition of words, better and more energetically arranged, "Let he his-self do it." It must be allowed that the Londoner does not use this compounded pronoun in the mode before us from any sense of conviction. He has fortunately stumbled upon a part of the truth which the courtier has overleaped, as the nominative in the singular number is my-self, and not me-self. --Samuel Pegge's Anecdotes of the English Language, c. 1803

    March 16, 2018

  • Hold the pedestal. I hear it in the modern day as he-self. Which, as Sammy P notes, is equivalent to the singular nominative me-self which is incorrect. Hence I am not sure that the cockneys stumbled on much at all.

    March 16, 2018