hirself

English

Etymology

hir +‎ -self, following pattern of herself, himself, and itself.

Pronunciation

• enPR: hērˈself, IPA^(key): /hiɹˈsɛlf/
• Rhymes: -ɛlf
• Hyphenation: hir‧self

Pronoun

hirself (a reflexive, third person singular, gender-neutral (or multigendered) personal pronoun) (nonstandard)

1. (reflexive) Hir, themselves; gender-neutral third-person singular object of a verb or preposition that also appears as the subject, coordinate with gendered himself and herself.
   • 1996 June, Catilin Sullivan with Bornstein, Kate, Nearly Roadkill: an Infobahn erotic adventure‎, New York: Serpent's Tail, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OL, LCC PS3569.U3449 N43 1996, page 13:

     It is here that Scratch has found hirself, bored out of hir mind but unable to sleep.

   • 2000, Peter David, Renaissance (Star Trek New Frontier: Excalibur #2), Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, →OL, page 229:

     Hir nostrils flared, and s/he stopped where s/he was, balancing hirself on hir toes without thought, as if poising hirself to make some sort of attack on whoever was there.

   • 2001 June 9, Timothy Leary, chapter 8, in Your Brain is God‎, Oakland: Ronin Publishing, →ISBN, →LCCN, LCC BP570.L43 2001:

     The working person discovered that hir own body belonged, not to the state or to the moralist or to the authoritarian doctor, but to hirself.

   • 2009, Pope Gus Rasputin Nishnabotna Sni-A-Bar, “Biscuitus”, in The Nuclear Platypus Biscuit Bible: A Spiritual Guide for the Disciples of Biscuitism, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 16:

     Alas, S/He then remembered S/He had created Hirself to be omnisciently all-knowing and all-seeing, so there were no possibilities S/He didn't already know.

   • 2010 October 12, Erica Lopez, The Girl Must Die: A Monster Girl Memoir, Hicken, Jeffrey, San Francisco: Monster Girl Media, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 143:

     Ze changed hir name to one of those New Testament names, and re-fashioned hirself into a soft, puffy, half-finished hermaphrodite nicknamed, The Pop n' Fresh Doe.

   • 2011, Jody Norton, “Transchildren and the Discipline of Children's Literature”, in Kenneth B. Kidd, Michelle Ann Abate, editors, Over the Rainbow: Queer Children's and Young Adult Literature, University of Michigan, →ISBN, LCC PS374.H63 O84 2011, page 306:

     A harrowing series of violent and transphobic confrontations (including some with hir parents) drives Ludo to attempt to kill hirself by going to sleep in a freezer.

2. (emphatic) Sie; an intensive repetition of a gender-neutral subject, often used to indicate exclusiveness of that person as the only satisfier of a predicate.
   • 1997 December 18, Kate Bornstein, My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely‎, London, New York: Routledge, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OL, LCC HQ1075.B69 1998, page 164:

     The trouble starts when gender (identity) ceases to be a reference point for connecting with a living growing person and is substituted for the person hirself.

   • 2002, Frank Schaap, The Words That Took Us There: Ethnography in a Virtual Reality, Amsterdam: Aksant Academic Publishers, →ISBN, →OL, page 90:

     OOC talk and actions are taken to represent the player hirself and help other players to form an image, however tentative it may be, of that player.

   • 2003 April 1, Susan Wright, Slave Trade (Slave Trade Trilogy #1), Pocket Books, →ISBN, →OL, page 97:

     Ash hadn't experienced much of that hirself, but s/he assumed it could happen.

Usage notes

See usage notes for hir.

Synonyms

• themself
• (neologism) emself, perself

Hyponyms

• himself, herself

See also

• other attested gender-neutral pronouns