Most likely from Old English hēo, hīo (“she”), from Proto-West Germanic *hiju, from Proto-Germanic *hijō f (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (“this, here”), but see she for more. Compare heo.
sche (accusative hire, genitive hire, possessive determiner hires, hiren)
In addition to referring to female humans and animals, this pronoun was used for inanimate objects belonging to the feminine grammatical gender early in Middle English. As grammatical gender obsolesced, this pronoun continued to refer to inanimate objects.
| nominative | accusative | dative | genitive | possessive | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | 1st-person | I, ich, ik | me | min mi1 |
min | ||
| 2nd-person | þou | þe | þin þi1 |
þin | |||
| 3rd-person | m | he | him hine2 |
him | his | his hisen | |
| f | sche, heo | hire heo |
hire | hire hires, hiren | |||
| n | hit | hit him2 |
his, hit | — | |||
| dual3 | 1st-person | wit | unk | unker | |||
| 2nd-person | ȝit | inc | inker | ||||
| plural | 1st-person | we | us, ous | oure | oure oures, ouren | ||
| 2nd-person4 | ye | yow | your | your youres, youren | |||
| 3rd-person | inh. | he | hem he2 |
hem | here | here heres, heren | |
| bor. | þei | þem, þeim | þeir | þeir þeires, þeiren | |||
1Used preconsonantally or before h.
2Early or dialectal.
3Dual pronouns are only sporadically found in Early Middle English; after that, they are replaced by plural forms. There are no third-person dual forms in Middle English.
4Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.
sche