her
Belonging to her (belonging to that female person or animal, or in poetic or old-fashioned language that ship, city, season, etc).
Determiner
- Belonging to her (belonging to that female person or animal, or in poetic or old-fashioned language that ship, city, season, etc).
- This is her book
- Prodigal in everything, summer spreads her blessings with lavish unconcern, and waving her magic wand across the landscape of the world, she bids the sons of men to enter in [...] - 1928, The Journal of the American...
- Her crew knew that deep in her heart beat engines fit and able to push her blunt old nose ahead at a sweet fourteen knots, come Hell or high water. - 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 1:
- Belonging to a person of unspecified gender (to counterbalance the traditional "his" in this sense).
- Begin by having students choose a short poem to memorize; they will enjoy searching the library for a poem that appeals to them. If a student wishes to memorize her poem and share it aloud with the rest of the class,...
Origin
From Middle English here, hir, hire, from Old English hire (“her”), from Proto-Germanic *hezōi (dative singular of *hijō). Cognate with North Frisian hör, Saterland Frisian hier, hiere (“her”), West Frisian har (“her”), Dutch haar (“her”), German Low German hör (“her”), German ihr (“her”).
Forms
Related
Ime me myselfmemysen mine mymineme we us ourselvesourselfoursen oursourn our you yourselfyoursen yoursyourn your thou thee thyselftheeselfthysen thine thythine youye yourselves you ally'all you guys yous y'allselves all yours y'all's you guys' your guys'
Noun
- A female person or animal.
- I think this bird is a him, but it may be a her.
- […] daring dizzying passages in other, fleeting and passionate dwellings within the hims and hers whom she inhabits […] - 1986, Hélène Cixous, Sorties (translated)
- By this time, she had so many questions, but she only hit him up for one answer about those “hims” and “hers.” She asked, “Do both hims and hers reproduce hummers?” - 2004, Charles J. Sullivan, Love and Survival, page...
Forms
Synonyms
Pronoun
- The form of she used after a preposition, as the object of a verb, or (colloquial) as a subject with a conjunction; that woman, that ship, etc, or (dialect) as a subject without a conjunction.
- Give it to her (after preposition)
- He wrote her a letter (indirect object)
- He treated her for a cold (direct object)
Forms
Derived
'er God rest her soul Her Highness herness herselves Her Serene Highness herstorian herstory herstrionic herstrionics I hardly even know her I hardly know her kiss-her-in-the-buttery let her rip peace be upon her put her there whatshername