ihm

Forms

ihm (dative singular of the personal pronouns er and es)^[1][2] The two-syllable form ime, ihme survived here and there into the 17th century (Luther, Logau).^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German im, inherited from Old High German imu, the dative of the pronoun er, from the pronominal stem of Proto-Germanic *iz (“he”).^[4][1][5] The same form is Old Saxon imu and Gothic 𐌹𐌼𐌼𐌰 (imma), while Old Norse, Old English and Old Frisian built the dative on a stem with initial /h/.^[4][3] The Grimms explain the Gothic ending as an old pronominal dative suffix also found in Sanskrit;^[3] Kluge reconstructs slightly different preforms for the Gothic and the West Germanic words.^[4] The stem goes back to the pronoun Proto-Indo-European *ís, seen in Latin is (“he, that one”) and Lithuanian jis (“he”).^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German imu is recorded from the 8th century.^[4] Beside it stood imo and ime.^[2][1]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German the unstressed form im became usual, and ime survived only here and there into the 17th century.^[3] Fischart's imo is not the Old High German form but a new formation of the 16th century, like dero and ihro.^[3]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German imu is recorded.^[4]
• 16th century – Fischart writes imo, a new formation.^[3]
• 17th century – The last records of ihme (Logau).^[3]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. Dative of er: (to) him: Ich habe ihm ein Buch geschenkt.^[1][5]
2. Dative of es: (to) it, of a neuter noun: Das Kind weint, gib ihm den Ball.^[1][2]

Related words

• er
• es
• ihn
• ihr

References

1. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
2. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c d e f g Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 10, 2047
4. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 438
5. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
6. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de