his
- the possessive form of he1 (used as an attributive or predicative adjective): His coat is the brown one. This brown coat is his. Do you mind his speaking first?
- that or those belonging to him: His was the cleverest remark of all. I borrowed a tie of his.
Origin of his
Usage note
His
he1
- the male person or animal being discussed or last mentioned; that male.
- anyone (without reference to gender); that person: He who hesitates is lost.
- any male person or animal; a man: hes and shes.
- male (usually used in combination): a he-goat.
Origin of he1
Usage note
Those who object to the generic use of he have developed various ways of avoiding it. One is to use he/she or she/he (or he or she or she or he ) or the appropriate case forms of these pairs: Everyone who agrees should raise his or her (or her or his or his/her or her/his ) right hand. Forms blending the feminine and masculine pronouns, as s/he, have not been widely adopted, probably because of confusion over how to say them.
Another solution is to change the antecedent pronoun or noun from singular to plural so that the plural pronouns they, their, and them can be used: All who agree should raise their right hands. All writers know that their first books are not likely to be bestsellers. See also they.
Related Words
ownedletternodovationsalutereceptionhellocardminewelcomehowdyhihailsalutationblowrespectsacknowledgmenttestimonialalohanotehis
- of, belonging to, or associated with himhis own fault; his knee; I don't like his being out so late
- as pronounhis is on the left; that book is his
- his and hers (of paired objects) for a man and woman respectively
- of his belonging to or associated with him
Word Origin
He
- helium
HE
- high explosive
- His Eminence
- His (or Her) Excellency
he1
- refers to a male person or animalhe looks interesting; he's a fine stallion
- refers to an indefinite antecedent such as one, whoever, or anybodyeverybody can do as he likes in this country
- refers to a person or animal of unknown or unspecified sexa member of the party may vote as he sees fit
- a male person or animal
- (in combination)he-goat
- a children's game in which one player chases the others in an attempt to touch one of them, who then becomes the chaserCompare tag 2
- the person chasingCompare it 1 (def. 7)
Word Origin
he2
- the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet (ה), transliterated as h
he3
- an expression of amusement or derisionAlso: he-he!, hee-hee!
Word Origin and History for his
pron.
Old English his (genitive of he), from Proto-Germanic *khisa (cf. Gothic is, German es). Originally also the neuter possessive pronoun, but replaced in that sense c.1600 by its. In Middle English, hisis was tried for the absolute pronoun (cf. her/hers), but it failed to stick. For dialectal his'n, see her.
he
pron.
Old English he (see paradigm of Old English third person pronoun below), from Proto-Germanic *hi- (cf. Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Middle Dutch he, hi, Dutch hy, Old High German he), from PIE *ki-, variant of *ko-, the "this, here" (as opposed to "that, there") root (cf. Hittite ki "this," Greek ekeinos "that person," Old Church Slavonic si, Lithuanian šis "this"), and thus the source of the third person pronouns in Old English. The feminine, hio, was replaced in early Middle English by forms from other stems (see she), while the h- wore off Old English neuter hit to make modern it. The Proto-Germanic root also is the source of the first element in German heute "today," literally "the day" (cf. Old English heodæg).
| case | SINGULAR | - | - | PLURAL |
| - | masc. | neut. | fem. | (all genders) |
| nom. | he | hit | heo, hio | hie, hi |
| acc. | hine | hit | hie, hi | hie, hi |
| gen. | his | his | hire | hira, heora |
| dat. | him | him | hire | him, heom |
Pleonastic use with the noun ("Mistah Kurtz, he dead") is attested from late Old English. With animal words, meaning "male" (he-goat, etc.) from c.1300.
His
- histidine
His
(hĭs)Wilhelm 1863-1934- German anatomist known for his investigations of the heart. He described (1893) the atrioventricular trunk, also called the His bundle.
He
- The symbol for the elementhelium
He
- The symbol for helium.