هو

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Arabic

Pronunciation

  • (Standard Arabic) IPA(key): /hu.wa/
  • (file)

Etymology 1

From Proto-Semitic *šuʔa.

Pronoun

هُوَ (huwam (genitive ـهُ (-hu) or ـهِ (-hi), accusative ـهُ (-hu) or ـهِ (-hi) or إِيَّاهُ (ʔiyyāhu))

  1. he (subject pronoun)
    1. (Sufism) Allah, God
  2. it (subject pronoun, referring to inanimate nouns of masculine gender)
  3. having a copulative force, usually inserted when both the مُبْتَدَأ (mubtadaʔ) and خَبَر (ḵabar) are definite.
    اَلْوَقْت هُوَ اَلْمَال.
    al-waqt huwa l-māl.
    Time is money.
  4. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
    • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 2:96:
      وَمَا هُوَ بِمُزَحْزِحِهِ مِنَ الْعَذَابِ أَن يُعَمَّرَ
      wamā huwa bimuzaḥziḥihi mina l-ʕaḏābi ʔan yuʕammara
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Further reading

See also

Arabic personal pronouns
Isolated nominative pronouns
singular dual plural
1st person أَنَا (ʔanā) نَحْنُ (naḥnu)
2nd person m أَنْتَ (ʔanta) أَنْتُمَا (ʔantumā) أَنْتُمْ (ʔantum)
f أَنْتِ (ʔanti) أَنْتُنَّ (ʔantunna)
3rd person m هُوَ (huwa) هُمَا (humā) هُمْ (hum), هُمُ (humu)1
f هِيَ (hiya) هُنَّ (hunna)
Isolated accusative pronouns
singular dual plural
1st person إِيَّايَ (ʔiyyāya) إِيَّانَا (ʔiyyānā)
2nd person m إِيَّاكَ (ʔiyyāka) إِيَّاكُمَا (ʔiyyākumā) إِيَّاكُم (ʔiyyākum)
f إِيَّاكِ (ʔiyyāki) إِيَّاكُنَّ (ʔiyyākunna)
3rd person m إِيَّاهُ (ʔiyyāhu) إِيَّاهُمَا (ʔiyyāhumā) إِيَّاهُمْ (ʔiyyāhum)
f إِيَّاهَا (ʔiyyāhā) إِيَّاهُنَّ (ʔiyyāhunna)
Enclitic accusative and genitive pronouns
singular dual plural
1st person ـنِي (-nī), ـنِيَ (-niya), ـي (-y), ـيَ (-ya)2 ـنَا (-nā)
2nd person m ـكَ (-ka) ـكُمَا (-kumā) ـكُم (-kum)
f ـكِ (-ki) ـكُنَّ (-kunna)
3rd person m ـهُ (-hu), ـهِ (-hi)3 ـهُمَا (-humā), ـهِمَا (-himā)3 ـهُم (-hum), ـهِم (-him)3
f ـهَا (-hā) ـهُنَّ (-hunna), ـهِنَّ (-hinna)3
1. هُمْ (hum) becomes هُمُ (humu) before the definite article الـ (al--).
2. Specifically, ـنِي (-nī, me) is attached to verbs, but ـِي () or ـيَ (-ya, my) is attached to nouns. In the latter case, ـيَ (-ya) is attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a long vowel or diphthong (e.g. in the sound masculine plural and the dual), while ـِي () is attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a short vowel, in which case that vowel is elided (e.g. in the sound feminine plural, as well as the singular and broken plural of most nouns). Furthermore, of the masculine sound plural is assimilated to before ـيَ (-ya) (presumably, -aw of masculine defective -an plurals is similarly assimilated to -ay). Prepositions use ـِي () or ـيَ (-ya), even though in this case it has the meaning of “me” rather than “my”. The sisters of inna can use either form (e.g. إِنَّنِي (ʔinnanī) or إِنِّي (ʔinnī)).
3. ـهِـ (-hi-) occurs after -i, , or -ay, and ـهُـ (-hu-) elsewhere (after -a, , -u, , -aw).

Etymology 2

From هُوَ (huwa, it), calqued from German Es, possibly through Latin id.

Noun

هُوَ (huwam

  1. (psychology) id
Declension

References

  • Wehr, Hans (1979) “هو”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN

Bakhtiari

Bakhtiari Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia bqi

Etymology

From Old Persian 𐏃𐎠𐎢𐎺 (hauv), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *só (name). Cognate with Avestan 𐬵𐬀 (ha).

Noun

هو (ho)

  1. he, that
    هو کجه بی؟
    ho kojeh bi?
    Where was he?

Chadian Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic هُوَ (huwa).

Pronoun

هو (m

  1. he (subject pronoun)

Egyptian Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic هُوَ (huwa).

Pronunciation

Pronoun

هو (húwwam

  1. he (subject pronoun)

See also

Hijazi Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic هُوَ (huwa).

Pronunciation

Pronoun

هو (huwwam, enclitic form ـه (-u).

  1. he (subject pronoun)
  2. it (subject pronoun, referring to animals and inanimate nouns of masculine gender)

Khalaj

Noun

هَو (həv) (definite accusative هَوی, plural هَولَر)

  1. Arabic spelling of həv (house)

Declension

Moroccan Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic هُوَ (huwa).

Pronunciation

Pronoun

هو (huwwam

  1. he (subject pronoun)

See also

Moroccan Arabic personal pronouns
Singular Plural
1st person آنا (ʔāna), أنا (ʔana) حنا (ḥnā)
2nd person m انت (ntā), انتينا (ntīna), انتين (ntīn) انتوما (ntūma), انتوم (ntūm)
f انت (ntī), انتينا (ntīna), انتين (ntīn)
3rd person m هو (huwwa) هوما (hūma), هوم (hūm)
f هي (hiyya)

North Levantine Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic هُوَ (huwa).

Pronoun

هو (huwwem

  1. he (subject pronoun)
    Enclitic form: ـه (-o/-h)

See also

North Levantine Arabic personal pronouns
Singular Plural
1st person أنا (ʔana) نحنا (niḥna)
2nd person m انت (ʔinta, ʔinte) انتو (ʔintu)
f انتي (ʔinti)
3rd person m هو (huwwe) هن (hinne) / هنن (hinnen)
f هي (hiyye)

Pashto

Pronunciation

Adverb

هو (ho)

  1. yes

Persian

Etymology

Probably dialectal variant of هبر (habar, pus), from Proto-Indo-European *sab-, *sap-; cognate with English sap. Compare Kurdish ھەو (hew, pus, inflammation).

Noun

هو (how)

  1. pus

Descendants

  • Middle Armenian: հու (hu) (possibly)

References

  • Steingass, Francis Joseph (1892) “هو”, in A Comprehensive Persian–English dictionary, London: Routledge & K. Paul
  • Ačaṙean, Hračʻeay (1971–1979) “հու”, in Hayerēn armatakan baṙaran [Armenian Etymological Dictionary] (in Armenian), 2nd edition, a reprint of the original 1926–1935 seven-volume edition, Yerevan: University Press
  • Martirosyan, Hrach (2010) Etymological Dictionary of the Armenian Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 8), Leiden and Boston: Brill, page 421

Soqotri

Alternative forms

Etymology

Akin to Mehri (), Shehri (he).

Pronoun

هو (ho)

  1. I. first-person singular pronoun
    • 2014, “The Story of the Makon”, in Vitaly Naumkin, compiler, Corpus of Soqotri Oral Literature, volume 1, page 66, line 12:
      عٞامٞر: دمنؤو أه؟ عامُر: هو رجدهي
      ʕémər di-mənóʔo ɛ ʕö́mor ho rígdihi
      They asked: "Where are you from?" He said: "I am from Rigdiho."

References

  • Naumkin, Vitaly, et al. (2014) “Glossary”, in Corpus of Soqotri Oral Literature, volume 1, Leiden: Brill, →DOI, →ISBN, page 549
  • Naumkin, Vitaly, et al. (2018) “Glossary”, in Corpus of Soqotri Oral Literature, volume 2, Leiden: Brill, →DOI, →ISBN, page 470
  • Leslau, Wolf (1938) “ho”, in Lexique Soqotri (sudarabique moderne) avec comparaisons et explications étymologiques (in French), Wiesbaden: Libraire C. Klincksieck, page 138

South Levantine Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic هُوَ (huwa).

Pronunciation

Pronoun

هو (huwwem (enclitic form ـه (-o, -h))

  1. he (third-person masculine singular subject pronoun)

See also

South Levantine Arabic personal pronouns
Singular Plural
1st person أنا (ʔana) احنا (ʔiḥna)
2nd person m انت (ʔinta) انتو (ʔintu)
f انتي (ʔinti)
3rd person m هو (huwwe) هم (homme)
f هي (hiyye)

Tunisian Arabic

Pronoun

هُوَّ (huwwam (f هي, pl هما)

  1. he (subject pronoun)