Nearby Words

him

[him] Origin

him

[him]
pronoun
1.
the objective case of he, used as a direct or indirect object: I'll see him tomorrow. Give him the message.
2.
Informal. (used instead of the pronoun he in the predicate after the verb to be): It's him. It isn't him.
3.
Informal. (used instead of the pronoun his before a gerund): We were surprised by him wanting to leave.
noun
4.
Informal. a male: Is the new baby a her or a him?

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Him is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

Origin:
before 900; Middle English, Old English, dative of he1

him, hymn.


See he1, me.

Dictionary.com Unabridged

H.I.M.

His Imperial Majesty; Her Imperial Majesty.

he

1[hee; unstressed ee] pronoun, nominative he, possessive his, objective him; plural nominative they, possessive their or theirs, objective them; noun, plural hes; adjective
pronoun
1.
the male person or animal being discussed or last mentioned; that male.
2.
anyone (without reference to sex); that person: He who hesitates is lost.
noun
3.
any male person or animal; a man: hes and shes.
adjective
4.
male (usually used in combination): a he-goat.

Origin:
before 900; Middle English, Old English (masculine nominative singular); cognate with Dutch hij, Old Saxon hē, Old High German her he; see his, him, she, her, it1


Traditionally, the masculine singular pronouns he1, his, and him have been used generically to refer to indefinite pronouns like anyone, everyone, and someone (Everyone who agrees should raise his right hand) and to singular nouns that can be applied to either sex (painter, parent, person, teacher, writer, etc.): Every writer knows that his first book is not likely to be a bestseller. This generic use is often criticized as sexist, although many speakers and writers continue the practice.EXPAND
Those who object to the generic use of he have developed various ways of avoiding it. One is to use he/she or she/he (or he or she or she or he) or the appropriate case forms of these pairs: Everyone who agrees should raise his or her (or her or his or his/her or her/his) right hand. Forms blending the feminine and masculine pronouns, as s/he, have not been widely adopted, probably because of confusion over how to say them.
Another solution is to change the antecedent pronoun or noun from singular to plural so that the plural pronouns they, their, and them can be used: All who agree should raise their right hands. All writers know that their first books are not likely to be bestsellers. See also they.

COLLAPSE
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
him (hɪm, (unstressed) ɪm)
 
pron
1.  refers to a male person or animal: they needed him; she baked him a cake; not him again!
2.  chiefly (US) a dialect word for himself : he ought to find him a wife
 

HIM
 
abbreviation for
His (or Her) Imperial Majesty

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

he
O.E. he (see paradigm of O.E. third pers. pronoun below), from P.Gmc. *hiz, from P.Gmc. base *khi-, from PIE *ki-, the "this, here" (as opposed to "that, there") root (cf. Hittite ki "this," Gk. ekeinos "that person," O.C.S. si, Lith. sis "this"), and thus the source of the third person pronouns in
EXPAND
O.E. The feminine, hio, was replaced in early M.E. by forms from other stems (see she), while the h- wore off O.E. neut. hit to make modern it. The P.Gmc. root is also the source of the first element in Ger. heute "today," lit. "the day" (cf. O.E. heodæg). Slang he-man "masculine fellow" is from 1832, originally among U.S. pioneers.

case SINGULAR - - PLURAL
- masc. neut. fem. (all genders)
nom. he hit heo, hio hie, hi
acc. hine hit hie, hi hie, hi
gen. his his hire hira, heora
dat. him him hire him, heom

him
O.E. him, originally dative masc. and neut. of he; beginning 10c. it replaced hine as masc. accusative, a regional process completed by 15c. The dative roots of the -m ending are retained in Ger. (ihm) and Du. (hem). Hine persists, barely, as the southern England dialectal 'un, 'n for "him."
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

He
The symbol for the element helium.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
helium   (hē'lē-əm)  Pronunciation Key 
Symbol He
A very lightweight, colorless, odorless element in the noble gas group. Helium occurs in natural gas, in radioactive ores, and in small amounts in the atmosphere. It has the lowest boiling point of any substance and is the second most abundant element in the universe. Helium is used to provide lift for balloons and blimps and to create artificial air that will not react chemically. Atomic number 2; atomic weight 4.0026; boiling point -268.9°C; density at 0°C 0.1785 gram per liter. See Periodic Table.

Our Living Language  : The second most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen, Helium (symbol He) is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic gas that is produced abundantly by the nuclear fusion in all stars and is found in smaller amounts on Earth. It was discovered by the British scientist—and founding editor of the journal Nature—Joseph Norman Lockyer in 1868, while he was studying a solar eclipse with a spectroscope, an instrument that breaks light up into a spectrum. If an element is heated up enough to glow, the emitted light produces a unique spectrum when refracted through a prism. Lockyer noticed that the spectrum of the Sun's corona, which is visible only during a solar eclipse, contained lines produced by an unknown element. He named the element helium from helios, the Greek word for "sun." Helios gives us many other words pertaining to the Sun, such as heliocentric and perihelion.
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Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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American Heritage
Abbreviations & Acronyms
HIM
Her (or His) Imperial Majesty
The American Heritage® Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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