herself - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English. Equivalent to her +‎ -self.

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[1]:
      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.

(reflexive object) her

(as intensifier) she

Translations to be checked