himself
himself Lexical Profile
himself Game Scores & Validity
• pronoun
Used as the object of a verb or preposition to refer to a male person or animal previously mentioned as the subject of the clause.
"He taught himself how to play the acoustic guitar by watching instructional videos."
Used intensively to emphasize a particular male person or animal, or to indicate that he acts alone without assistance.
"The director himself greeted the guests at the entrance of the theater."
Used in a predicate to indicate a male person's normal, healthy, or customary state of mind or body.
"After a full night of rest, he finally felt like himself again."
Word Nuance & Usage
In formal English, 'himself' should be used reflexively or intensively rather than as a direct replacement for the subject 'he' or object 'him' (e.g., use 'John and I' or 'John and me' rather than 'John and himself'). Also avoid the nonstandard dialectal form 'hisself' in standard writing.
• Rhymes for himself
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Formed in Old English by combining the dative/accusative pronoun 'him' with 'self'. Unlike 'myself' and 'yourself', which shifted to use possessive determiners during the Middle English period, 'himself' retained the older objective pronoun structure.