Yersel

Part of speech: pronoun

Definitions

1. A dialect form of yourself, used in Scots and northern English to refer back to the person being addressed
2. The reflexive pronoun for the second person, used in Scottish and northern English speech in place of yourself
3. Used in Scots and northern English dialect to mean the addressed person, as in asking someone about themselves

Etymology: "Yersel" is a Scots and northern English dialect form of "yourself," and it follows the same pattern as the standard word. Its first part, "your," comes from Old English "ēower," and its ending, "-sel" or "-self," comes from Old English "self," meaning "same" or "own." The reduced "yer" shape comes from the common weakening of unstressed "your" in speech, the same process that gives many Scots and northern forms their clipped sound. The "-self" element has a longer story than the rest. In Old English "self" was originally an adjective meaning "same" or "very," and it was used with pronouns to emphasise identity, so "ic self" meant roughly "I myself." Over the Middle English period it fused onto the possessive pronouns to make the reflexive forms we now use, "myself," "yourself," and "themselves." Because "your" was often unstressed in connected speech, the spoken form gradually shortened, and in Scots and northern dialects it settled into forms such as "yersel," "yersels" for the plural, and "yoursel."