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
-
But think about the limitations the guy would have on his-self.
Your Next Job?, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
-
Was he that desparate to get the Repub nomination to transform his-self in to a Bush Mini-Me.
Obama addresses rumors head-on at pro-Israel conference 2008
-
He'd contact me when he needed something, then pick it up his-self and pay in cash.
The Killing Kind John Connolly 2002
-
They bad-talked him until he trained his-self to play right ….
RL’s Dream Walter Mosley 1995
-
I can't say what it was, in course -- a bit of his-self, I suppose.
International Weekly Miscellany - Volume 1, No. 8, August 19, 1850 Various
-
De Wette Number One, waiting a little time until convinced that Number Two had disposed himself to sleep, retired also his-self to bed, wondering very much what all this could mean.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 35, September, 1860 Various
-
There sat a little boy on a stump, all by his-self, there in the woods.
Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Indiana Narratives Work Projects Administration
-
"Some derned sheepman gone crazy an 'shot his-self," grumbled Sam.
Rimrock Trail 1906
-
With a man callin 'his-self by that name and advertisin' as he'd lecture on 'Measure for Measure,' I thought I'd a little bit of all right.
Nicky-Nan, Reservist Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch 1903
-
-- I mane if ye say any timbers or spars from the wrack drifting inshore, just you hould your eye on thim, or the divil a mother's son ye'll have a roof over his hid or a pace of foire to warm his-self!
The Wreck of the Nancy Bell Cast Away on Kerguelen Land 1887
Gammerstang commented on the word his-self
(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
bilby commented on the word his-self
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