she
Language: English
Part of speech: pron
Pronunciation: ipa: /ʃiː/
ipa: /ʃi/
ipa: /ʃə/
rhymes: -iː
homophone: sidhe
homophone: Xi
homophone: shee
Forms: form: her
form: hers
form: herself
form: shoo
form: hoo
form: shee
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English sche, scho, hyo, ȝho (“she”), whence also Yorkshire dialectal shoo (“she”), Scots she, sho (“she”).
Probably from Old English hēo (whence dialectal English hoo), with an irregular change in stress from hēo to heō /hjoː/, then a development from /hj-/ to /ç/ to /ʃ-/, similar to the derivation of Shetland from Old Norse Hjaltland. In this case, she is from Proto-West Germanic *hiju, from Proto-Germanic *hijō f (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (“this, here”), and is cognate with Saterland Frisian jo, ju, West Frisian hja, North Frisian jü, Danish hun, Swedish hon; more at he.
A derivation from Old English sēo (“that one”, occasionally “she”) is also possible, though less likely. In that case, sēo would have undergone a change in stress from sēo to seō /sjoː/, then a change from /sj-/ to /ʃ-/, similar to the derivation of sure from Old French seur. It would then be cognate to Dutch zij and German sie.
Neither etymology would be expected to yield the modern vocalism in /iː/ (the expected form would be shoo, which is in fact found dialectally). It may be due to influence from he, but both hēo and sēo also have rare variants (hīe and sīe) that may give modern English /iː/.
Senses: examples: text: I asked Mary, but she said that she didn't know.
text: After the cat killed a mouse, she left it on our doorstep.
text: She seems a clever girl, your Isabel.
text: Goodly she entertaind those noble knights, / And brought them vp into her castle hall […]
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: The mother, Ekaterina Pavlovna, who at one time had been handsome, but now, asthmatic, depressed, vague, and over-feeble for her years, tried to entertain me with conversation about painting. Having heard from her daughter that I might come to Shelkovka, she had hurriedly recalled two or three of my landscapes which she had seen in exhibitions in Moscow, and now asked what I meant to express by them.
ref: 1917, Anton Chekhov, translated by Constance Garnett, The Darling and Other Stories, Project Gutenberg, published 9 September 2004, →ISBN, page 71:
text: His family, who live in West Des Moines, Iowa, have been left “devastated,” his owner Tracy Wolfe said in GWR press release. “He was just the best giant boy,” she added.
ref: 2024 June 25, Issy Ronald, “Kevin, world’s tallest male dog, dies shortly after securing record”, in CNN:
text: Morgan Sanner, a 27-year-old human resources worker in Ohio, told New York magazine’s The Cut that she felt inspired to follow in the footsteps of other people — who she noticed were “taking significant breaks” from their careers — after going abroad for the first time.
ref: 2024 December 31, Brooke Kato, “What is ‘microretirement’? Gen Z and millennials spawn new career trend to help with woes”, in New York Post:
glosses: The female (typically) person or animal previously mentioned or implied.
examples: text: She could do forty knots in good weather.
text: She is a beautiful boat, isn’t she?
glosses: A ship or boat.
examples: text: She is a poor place, but has beautiful scenery and friendly people.
glosses: A country, or sometimes a city, province, planet, etc.
examples: text: She only gets thirty miles to the gallon on the highway, but she’s durable.
text: Prodigal in everything, summer spreads her blessings with lavish unconcern, and waving her magic wand across the landscape of the world, she bids the sons of men to enter in and possess. Summer is the great consummation.
ref: 1928, The Journal of the American Dental Association, page 765:
text: She is my 57 Chevy / My 57 Chevy runs so fine / No one can beat my 57 Chevy
ref: 1977, “57 Chevy”, in Kansas City Slickers, performed by The Leopards:
text: The car’s engine revved up, and the back wheels screeched. Then she lurched forward at terrific speed.
ref: 2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:
glosses: A thing, especially a machine or other object, such as a car, a computer, or (poetically) a season.
examples: text: Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen. For a child, it could be placing with trembling fingers the last block on a tower she has built, higher than any she has built so far; for a swimmer, it could be trying to beat his own record; for a violinist, mastering an intricate musical passage.
ref: 1990, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience:
glosses: A person whose gender is unknown or irrelevant (used in a work, along with or in place of he, as an indefinite pronoun).
Derived terms: as she is spoke
go tell your mother she wants you
he or she
he-said-she-said
he-she
M-She-U
sheanderthal
she-ape
shebeast
she bitch
she-buffalo
she-E-O
she-lion
shemale
she-ogre
she or he
she shed
She-She-She Camp
She-Type
steady as she goes
steady-as-she-goes
thar she blows
that's all she wrote
that's what she said
there she blows
Related terms: word: she-
word: Ime
word: me
word: myselfmemysen
word: mine
word: mymineme
word: we
word: us
word: ourselvesourselfoursen
word: oursourn
word: our
word: you
word: yourselfyoursen
word: yoursyourn
word: your
word: thou
word: thee
word: thyselftheeselfthysen
word: thine
word: thythine
word: youye
word: yourselves
word: you ally'all you guys
word: y'allselves
word: all yours y'all's you guys' your guys'
word: all your y'all's your all's you guys' your guys'
word: he
word: him
word: himselfhisselfhissen
word: hishisn
word: his
word: her
word: herselfhersen
word: hershern
word: ithit
word: itselfhitself
word: itshis
word: itshishits
word: they
word: them
word: themself
word: themselves
word: theirs
word: their
word: one
word: oneself
word: –
word: one's
word: themhem
word: 'em
word: themselvestheirsen
word: theirstheirn
word: The following table shows a list of English personal pronoun
word: including archaic and dialectal forms. Dialectal and obsolete
word: archaic forms are in italics. 1 See Appendix:English third-person singular pronouns for attested neopronoun.