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2018 August 6, “Brief Introduction of Nansi”, in Nansi District Office, Tainan City, archived from the original on 16 February 2022:
The Nansi District was formerly known as the "Jiaba Community", and was one of the early territories of the Taivoan, as well as where the Zou resided. Later, due to the invasion of the Siraya tribe, the community members later migrated out to regions such as Gongguan, Paoziliao (Kaohsiung County), and Daciouyuan. During the time of the Japanese occupation, because of its location at the west of the "Nanzihsian River", it was therefore renamed Nansi ("si" meaning "west"). A village and village hall were established here, under the governance of Sinhua District of Tainan Province. After the war in 1945, it was renamed Nansi Township, and was changed to Nansi District after the merging of Tainan City and County on December 25th, 2010.
A third-person singular personal pronoun used to refer to a baby or child, especially of unknown gender.
She took the baby and held it in her arms.
1847, Charlotte Brontë, chapter IV, in Jane Eyre:
A child cannot quarrel with its elders, as I had done; cannot give its furious feelings uncontrolled play, as I had given mine, without experiencing afterwards the pang of remorse and the chill of reaction.
1859, Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White:
I could only encourage Mrs. Clements to speak next of Anne's early days […] "There was nobody else, sir, to take the little helpless creature in hand," replied Mrs. Clements. "The wicked mother seemed to hate it—as if the poor baby was in fault!—from the day it was born. My heart was heavy for the child, and I made the offer to bring it up as tenderly as if it was my own." "Did Anne remain entirely under your care from that time?" "Not quite entirely, sir. Mrs. Catherick had her whims and fancies about it at times, and used now and then to lay claim to the child, as if she wanted to spite me for bringing it up.
2005, Marcus Zusak, The Book Thief, part 10:
The sky was dripping. Like a tap that a child has tried its hardest to turn off but hasn't quite managed.
"[…] It's my belief that you don't know your own mind." "I don't, dear," said Hulda, nestling to him. "Why, what a puss it is!" cried Sir Philip, kissing her tenderly.
1897, Olive Pratt Rayner (Grant Allen), The Type-Writer Girl
She caught my eye, and laughed. “What a funny girl it is!” she cried. “You are so comical! But it isn't the least use your trying to frighten me. I can see the twinkle in your big black eyes; and I like you in spite of your trying to be horrid. Do you know, I liked you from the first moment I saw you.”
1905, The Harvard Monthly, volumes 39-40, page 183:
WILLIAM: You don't like me better? CLARA: Indeed I do. WILLIAM (laughing): Well, what a dear girl it is. CLARA (flinging her arms around his neck with suddenly disclosed passion): Oh, I do love you!
1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
Next morning bought her breakfast & she asked for a couple dollars to get a drink. Gave her $3, walked her to a bar. Some teenage boys watched us walking & began shouting. When I left her at the bar door & kissed her goodbye, they began shouting "Ugh! You kissed it!!"
1993, Bruce Coville, Aliens Ate My Homework, pages 72–73:
"Oh, don't be silly. I am neither male nor female. I'm a farfel." […] "It. Refer to me as an it." "That seems pretty rude," I said nervously. "Not as rude as calling me a he or a she," it said.
2024 January 16, Matteo Garofalo, “Singular Purpose: Calculating the Degree of Ethno-Religious Over-representation in the USNo-Fly List”, in International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy:
The individual known as Maia Arson Crimew was born as Tillie Kottmann on 7 August 1999 in Lucerne, Switzerland. Kottmann/Crimew has expressed on its website a desire to be referred to by ‘it’ pronouns (Crimew 2021), so this article will interchangeably refer to it by its preferred terms as either ‘Maia Arson Crimew’ or ‘it’. Crimew is a well-known figure among hacking and cybersecurity circles. It has either taken credit for or been attributed to hacks from several major multinational corporations, including […]
Used to refer to someone being identified, often on the phone, but not limited to this situation.
It's me. John.
Is it her?
It is I, your king.
The impersonal pronoun, used without referent as the subject of an impersonal verb or statement (known as the dummy pronoun, dummy it or weather it).
It is nearly 10 o’clock.
It’s 10:45.
It’s very cold today.
It’s lonely without you.
The impersonal pronoun, used without referent, or with unstated but contextually implied referent, in various short idioms or expressions.
2021, Seth Wickersham, It's Better to Be Feared: The New England Patriots Dynasty and the Pursuit of Greatness, Liveright Publishing, →ISBN:
Later that night, a friend told Brady, “Still got it.” “Never lost it,” he replied. THAT WAS MOSTLY TRUE. But the 2013 season ended with the Patriots coaches wondering whether Brady's skills were in a subtle but irrevocable decline […]
Referring to sexual intercourse or other sexual activity.
The great advantage of English public school life lies of course in the quality of tutelage it provides. Adrian had received a decent and broad English education in the area of his loins. […] He had quickly happened upon the truth which many lonely contemporaries would never discover, the truth that everybody, simply everybody, was panting for it and could, with patience, be shown that they were panting for it. So Adrian grabbed what was to hand and had the time of his life genitally – focusing exclusively on his own gender of course, for this was 1973 and girls had not yet been invented.
'Tisn't beauty, so to speak, nor good talk necessarily. It's just It. Some women'll stay in a man's memory if they once walked down a street
1927, Dorothy Parker, “Madame Glyn Lectures on 'It,' with Illustrations”, in The New Yorker, published 1927 November 26; republished in Brendan Gill, editor, The Portable Dorothy Parker, New York: Penguin, 1976, pages 464-468:
And she had It. It, hell; she had Those.
The impersonal pronoun, used as a placeholder for a delayed subject, or less commonly, object; known as the dummy pronoun (according to some definitions), anticipatory it or, more formally in linguistics, a syntactic expletive. The delayed subject is commonly a to-infinitive, a gerund, or a noun clause introduced by a subordinating conjunction.
"I know now!" said I. "I have seen this in your face a long while." "No; have you really, my dear?" said he. "What a Dame Durden it is to read a face!"
I find it odd that you would say that.
(with the noun clause introduced by that)
It is hard seeing you so sick.
(with the gerund seeing)
He saw to it that everyone would vote for him.
(with the noun clause introduced by that)
It is not clear if the report was true.
(with the noun clause introduced by if)
All or the end; something after which there is no more.
Are there more students in this class, or is this it?
That's it—I'm not going to any more candy stores with you.
(obsolete)Followed by an omitted and understood relative pronoun: That which; what.
Ancient: (subject pronouns are usually omitted, or a demonstrative is used: medial, proximal, and distal demonstratives:)τοῦτο(toûto), τόδε(tóde), ἐκεῖνο(ekeîno); (Epic demonstratives:)τό(tó), ὅ(hó)
Russian: его́(ru)m or n(jevó)(genitive case), ему́(ru)m or n(jemú)(dative case), его́(ru)m or n(jevó)(accusative case), им(ru)m or n(im)(instrumental case), нём(ru)m or n(njom)(prepositional case)
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
That which groweth of it owne accord of thy haruest, thou ſhalt not reape, neither gather the grapes of thy Uine vndreſſed: for it is a yeere of reſt vnto the land.
replaced by "its" in the 1769 Oxford Standard Text
His master glanced up quickly, and removed the letter from his hands. "I'm surprised at you, James," he remarked severely. "A secretary should control itself. Don't forget that the perfect secretary is an it: an automatic machine—a thing incapable of feeling.…"
1995, Neil Weiner, Sharon E. Robinson Kurpius, Shattered innocence, page 8:
Too often, children become an "it" in their homes and their humanness is devalued.
When you play hi-spy, and are “it,” and want to know where the others have hid, take a stick and put it up on end and let it fall. If it falls three times in the same direction, that shows you the way to go to find the hiders.
2000, Katherine T. Thomas, Amelia M. Lee, Jerry R. Thomas, Physical education for children, page 464:
When there are only two children left who haven't been tagged, I will stop the game, and we will start over with those children starting as the Its.
2015, Charis Charalampous, Rethinking the Mind-Body Relationship in Early Modern Literature, Philosophy, and Medicine: The Renaissance of the Body, Routledge, →ISBN, page 36:
[…] thus reversing the roles of the I and the it, the former now occupying the place of the latter and vice versa. An awareness of our bisubjective nature (it and me) requires thus an I as a third term that slides between […]
With Hit Girl, Moretz is this year's It Girl, alternately sweet, savage and scary.
2021 October 4, Robert P, “Are Golden Goose Sneakers Worth It? My Honest Review Of Golden Goose Sneakers”, in Gold Talk Club, archived from the original on 15 July 2024:
These Italian made sneakers quickly became an it shoe and the trend is not going anywhere any time soon!
^ Howe, Stephen (1996) “14. Old/Middle Swedish”, in The Personal Pronouns in the Germanic Languages: A Study of Personal Pronoun Morphology and Change in the Germanic Languages from the First Records to the Present Day, Walter de Gruyter
Not historically derogatory, and still used as the primary term for "dog" in the countryside. Usually, if a dog is a stray or feral, it can be referred to as "it" as well. The more usual word is köpek, which is also pejorative and derogatory when used for a person.
Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 23