Hers

Part of speech: pronoun

Pronunciation: /ˈhɜːz/

Definitions

1. This pronoun signifies ownership pertaining to a female person, conveying that an object or quality belongs to her exclusively
2. It indicates possession by a female, representing items or traits that are associated with her ownership
3. Used to show that something belongs to a woman or girl, emphasizing ownership or association with her

Etymology: "Hers" is a possessive pronoun built from "her" plus the same "-s" ending found in "'s" possessives. Its earliest forms appear in Middle English as "hires," "heres," and "hers," attested from the 1300s, so the form is several centuries younger than "his" and "mine" in their modern shapes. The -s ending is the interesting part. Old English had no separate possessive pronoun for "her" at all: the old genitive "hire" served as "her," and it was the addition of -s in Middle English that produced the standalone "hers" used to stand alone in a sentence, as in "that book is hers." The same -s appears in "his," "ours," "yours," and "theirs," which is why "hers" fits so neatly into that group.