herself

See also: Herself

English

Alternative forms

• Herself (honorific)

Etymology

From Middle English. Equivalent to her +‎ -self.

Pronunciation

• (UK)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /hɜːˈsɛlf/, /(h)əsɛlf/
  • (Northumbria) IPA^(key): /æˈsɛl/, /ɐˈsɛl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /hɝˈsɛlf/, /ɚsɛlf/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: her‧self
• Rhymes: -ɛlf

Pronoun

herself (the third person singular, feminine, personal pronoun, the reflexive form of she, masculine himself, neuter itself, gender-neutral singular themself or themselves, plural themselves)

1. (reflexive pronoun) Her; the female object of a verb or preposition that also appears as the subject.

   She injured herself.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything. In a moment she had dropped to the level of a casual labourer.

   • 2023 May 29, Madeline Holcombe, “Lizzo is teaching us about body neutrality. Here is what it means and how to get there”, in CNN‎:

     Lizzo, who is known for messages of self-love and wider acceptance, has recently said as much as she shared that she is encouraging a stance of body neutrality for herself and others.

2. (emphatic) She; an intensifier of the female subject or object, often used to indicate the directness or exclusiveness of that person .

   She was injured herself.

3. (Ireland) The subject or non-reflexive object of a predicate; she (used of upper-class ladies, or sarcastically, of women who imagine themselves to be more important than others)

   What's herself up to this time?

   Have you seen herself yet this morning?

   • 1915, Charles L Graves, Humours of Irish life, pages 241-242:

     Was anyone hurted? Sure, they were just trailin' theirselves off the ground. Ye wud have died larfin'. There's Jimmy Hanlon was never his own man since, and I had me nose broke on me—I find it yet—and some says there was a wee girl from Tanderagee got herself killed.

Derived terms

• every woman for herself

Translations

(reflexive object) her

Belarusian: сябе́ (sjabjé) (accusative, genitive), сабе́ (sabjé) (dative, locative), сабо́й (sabój) (instrumental); -цца (-cca) (verb ending) Catalan: es (ca) Esperanto: sin (eo) Finnish: itsensä (fi) French: elle-même (fr) f German: sich (de) Greek: Ancient: ἑαυτήν (heautḗn), ἑαυτῇ (heautēî), ἑαυτῆς (heautês) Hungarian: magát (hu) Jamaican Creole: arself Khakas: позы (pozı) Latin: sē (la), sēsē, sibi, suī (la) Mauritian Creole: limem Navajo: tʼáá bí, tʼáá hó Northern Sami: iežas Portuguese: a si (própria/mesma), se (pt) Romani: pes Kalo Finnish Romani: pes Romanian: se (ro) Russian: себя́ (ru) (sebjá) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: себе Roman: sebe (sh) Sorbian: Lower Sorbian: se Spanish: se (es), ella misma, sí misma Tuvan: боду (bodu) Volapük: oki Welsh: ei hun, ei hunan (South Wales) Yakut: бэйэтэ (beyete) Yiddish: זיך (zikh)

(as intensifier) she

American Sign Language: A@Chesthigh SmallFrontandback Arabic: نَفْسُهَا (nafsuhā) Belarusian: яна́ сама́ f (janá samá) Catalan: mateixa (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 她自己 (tā zìjǐ) Czech: jí (cs) Dutch: zijzelf (nl) Finnish: hän ... itse French: elle-même (fr) German: sie selbst Greek: Ancient: αὐτή (autḗ) Hungarian: maga (hu) Italian: lei stessa Japanese: 彼女自身 (かのじょじゃしん, kanojo-jishin) Korean: 그 여자 자신 (geu yeoja jasin) Kurdish: Central Kurdish: خۆی (xoy) Latin: ipsa (la) Latvian: viņa pati f Norman: ielle-mesme (Guernsey) Northern Sami: ieš Portuguese: ela mesma (pt) Romanian: ea însăși Russian: сама́ (ru) (samá) Slovak: ona sama f Spanish: ella misma Swedish: sig (sv), sig själv Ukrainian: вона́ сама́ f (voná samá)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Interlingua: (please verify) ipse

See also

English personal pronouns

Dialectal and obsolete or archaic forms are in italics. personal pronoun possessive pronoun possessive determiner subjective objective reflexive first person singular I me (colloquial) me myself me mysen mine my mine (before vowels, archaic) me plural we us ourselves ourself oursen ours ourn (obsolete outside dialects) our second person singular standard (historically formal) you you yourself yoursen yours yourn (obsolete outside dialects) your archaic (historically informal) thou thee thyself theeself thysen thine thy thine (before vowels) plural standard you ye (archaic) you yourselves yours yourn (obsolete outside dialects) your colloquial you all y'all you guys yous you all y'all you guys yous y'allselves all yours y'all's you guys' your guys' all your y'all's your all's (nonstandard) you guys' your guys' informal / dialectal (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 feminine she her herself hersen hers hern (obsolete outside dialects) her neuter it hit it hit itself hitself its his (archaic) its his (archaic) hits genderless1 they them themself, themselves theirs their nonspecific (formal) one one oneself – one's plural they them hem, 'em themselves theirsen theirs theirn (obsolete outside dialects) their 1 See Appendix:English third-person singular pronouns for attested neopronouns.

Anagrams

• Flesher, flesher