his Meaning, Definition & Usage

His pronoun

Etymology

AS. his of him, his, gen. masc. & neut. of h, neut. hit. See He.

Definitions

1. Belonging or pertaining to him; -- used as a pronominal adjective or adjective pronoun; as, tell John his papers are ready; formerly used also for its, but this use is now obsolete.

   No comfortable star did lend his light. Shak.

   Who can impress the forest, bid the tree Unfix his earth-bound root? Shak.

   ✍ Also formerly used in connection with a noun simply as a sign of the possessive. "The king his son." Shak. "By young Telemachus his blooming years." Pope. This his is probably a corruption of the old possessive ending -is or -es, which, being written as a separate word, was at length confounded with the pronoun his.
2. The possessive of he; as, the book is his. "The sea is his, and he made it." Ps. xcv. 5.