his

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English his,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English his, the genitive of hē (“he”)^[5][6][4][7] and of hit (“it”),^[4][8][7][9] from Proto-Germanic *hisa,^[5][6] and Barnhart goes on to Proto-Indo-European *ki-,^[6] the root of Proto-Germanic *hi- (“this”).^[10] It was formed like the genitives Old Dutch is, Old Saxon is, Old High German es and Gothic 𐌹𐍃 (is).^[11][12][13] As a possessive it was at first simply this genitive, what is now “of him”, with the genitive ending -s.^[14][11] The adjective use is a conversion of the genitive pronoun.^[11] It displaced Old English sīn, the possessive cognate with German sein (“his”).^[14][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

As the genitive "of him": Barnhart dates Old English his to before 725,^[6] and the OED's first quotation of the genitive is from early Old English, in Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care.^[11] The possessive before a noun appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Parker manuscript), in the annal for 787.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Early in the Old English period the genitive began to take over from the possessive sīn,^[14] which is rare and chiefly poetic in the record,^[11] and by about 1000 it was also a possessive pronoun, as in "it's his".^[14] It was at first the possessive of it as well, and its replaced it in that use from about 1600,^[5][9] though Shakespeare and the Authorized Version still have it.^[9] Middle English tried a separate form hisis for the pronoun, on the model of hers, but it did not last;^[5][11] dialects kept hisn.^[5][11] From about 1175, in the Ormulum, it could stand after a noun in place of the genitive -s:^[11] the type "Moses his book" was common in the 16th and 17th centuries^[5] and died out around 1750, according to Etymonline.^[5] His Highness and similar titles are recorded from before 1450.^[11]

Timeline

• before 725 – Old English genitive of he, “of him” (obsolete as a genitive by 1425).^[6][11]
• c. 1000 – possessive pronoun, “it's his”.^[14]
• c. 1175 – after a noun, in place of the genitive -s, in the Ormulum.^[11]
• 1340 – of his, belonging to him; also before a noun for something less closely tied to him, in the Ayenbite.^[11]
• 1442 – before a verbal noun or gerund.^[11]
• before 1450 – in honorific titles, his highness, his majesty, in Lydgate.^[11]
• c. 1600 – its use for things gives way to its.^[5][9]
• 1888 – for a woman, “her”, in south-western English and southern American regional use (now rare).^[11]
• 1917 – his home, “his place”, colloquial and regional British.^[11]
• 1949 – his and hers, of a matched pair for a man and a woman.^[11]

Meanings

Determiner

1. Of or belonging to a male person or animal already mentioned: He left his keys on the kitchen table.^[8][3][11]
2. Done, made or experienced by him, including before a gerund: We were glad of his arriving early.^[3][8][11]
3. Referring to a person of unspecified sex, a generic use now often avoided: Each runner must collect his own number.^[2][11]
4. Used in titles such as His Majesty and His Lordship, as a formal substitute for he or him.^[11]
5. (archaic) Referring to a thing: its.^[11][12][9]

Pronoun

1. The one or ones belonging to him: The umbrella by the door is his.^[8][3][11]
2. of his: belonging to him: a friend of his.^[8][11][3]
3. his and hers: of paired items, one for a man and one for a woman.^[8][12][11]

Related words

• he
• him
• it
• its

Usage notes

Using his for anyone of either sex has a long history, back to Old English,^[11] but the use is often criticized as sexist; writers avoid it with his or her or by rewording.^[2] The possessive pronoun is unusual in English in having no form distinct from the adjective (compare her and hers).^[11] The English Dialect Dictionary records it for "his house" in Oxfordshire and East Anglia, and after proper names in place of -s in Oxfordshire,^[15] and Scots and English dialect forms like es, hez and iz.^[15] The OED separately enters a rare early Middle English his meaning "her" and "them" (objective), of uncertain origin,^[11] and His as a chemical abbreviation of histidine (1945).^[11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d e Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
15. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)