# 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: /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)
* (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.
* (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2014 June 21, “Magician’s brain”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8892:The [Isaac] Newton that emerges from the [unpublished] manuscripts is far from the popular image of a rational practitioner of cold and pure reason.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.
* (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.
* (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

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.

#### See also

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