# his

Pronunciation: say "HIZ" /hɪz/

## Determiner

1. Belonging to or associated with a male person or animal already mentioned.
   - Simple: Belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned.
   - _My brother sold his car last week._
   - _The dog wagged his tail._

## Pronoun

2. That or those belonging to him, used without a following noun.
   - Simple: The thing or things that belong to him, with no noun after it.
   - _Her handwriting is neater than his._
   - _That old coat of his needs washing._
4. The home of the man or boy in question, with place understood. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Where he lives, in casual speech, as in 'back to his'.
   - _The party is at his on Saturday._
   - _I left my jacket at his last night._

## Determiner

3. Generic 'his' for a person of unspecified gender ('each individual, according to his particular situation'), now often felt as dated or exclusionary. *(dated)*
   - Simple: Used for any person, man or woman, in older or formal writing.
   - _A writer should know his audience._
   - _Everyone has his own reasons._
5. Used after a noun in place of -'s to mark possession, especially after masculine names ending in -s. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: An old way of writing the possessive, as in 'Sejanus his fall'.
   - _The title page reads 'Cornelius his tract'. (old use)_
   - _He signed it 'Thomas his mark'. (old use)_
6. Used to mean its, of a thing without gender; now only where the thing is personified. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: An old use of 'his' to mean 'its', for a thing.

## Origin

Proto-Indo-European had a root meaning "this," which led to Proto-Germanic *hiz ("this, this one") and its genitive *hes ("of this"). From there came Old English his, meaning "his" or "its," and then Middle English his. Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Icelandic hans ("his") are related.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/his (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).