Pronoun inconsistency.

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milky

#301544 Thu, 07 Dec 06 12:53 PM

Why is the standard form of the reflexive pronoun "himself" and not "hisself"?

milky

Joined on Thu, Jan 15 2004

Senior Member (3,149)

Hume said that if we had perfect or complete descriptive knowledge of reality, we could not, by reasoning, derive a single valid "ought".

Nouns, Pronouns

Philip

#301604 Thu, 07 Dec 06 05:17 PM

Milky wrote:
Why is the standard form of the reflexive pronoun "himself" and not "hisself"?

One can only guess why the 3rd person masculine singular strays from the rule, as does the 3rd person plural. In the singular, I believe it is probably because of the double 's', which at some time looked and sounded bad to the general population.

Philip

Joined on Thu, Jun 23 2005

USA Pacific Northwest (Seattle)

Veteran Member (5,956)

At reise er at leve! - H. C. Andersen

Nouns, Plurals, Pronouns

Marius Hancu

#301630 Thu, 07 Dec 06 06:20 PM

As a matter of fact, you may find hissself here and there, but it's sub-standard.

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his·self

Function:pronoun

substandard : HIMSELF <when he come to hisself they told him it was a Union hospital -- Helen Eustis>

http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com
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Marius Hancu

Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006

Montreal, Canada

Veteran Member (11,673)

Nouns, Pronouns

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