Himself

Part of speech: pronoun

Pronunciation: /hɪmˈsɛlf/

Definitions

1. It signifies the same male figure in a context where he is both the subject and the object, stressing his personal engagement and consciousness
2. This term denotes a particular male person reflecting on his own thoughts and actions while emphasizing his individuality and self-reliance
3. Used to indicate that the male person previously mentioned is both the actor and receiver of an action, highlighting self-reference

Etymology: "Himself" is built from two older words that were once separate: "him," the dative case of "he," and "self." In Old English, the phrase was "him selfum," with "selfum" in the dative form, meaning roughly "to him, the self." Speakers treated the two as a unit, and by Middle English the spelling had fused into "hymself," which later settled into the form we use now. The same pattern underlies the other reflexive pronouns, such as "myself," "yourself," and "themselves." Each pairs a personal pronoun in its object form with "self," and English has used this construction for a long time. The "-self" element carries the sense of identity or the person's own being, so the whole word points back to the individual the sentence is about.