ze

But I do know what sex ze is. It used to influence me. But now I talk to hir like a normal person. I mean, without thinking about what ze is.

1996 June, Caitlin Sullivan with Bornstein, Kate, Nearly Roadkill: an Infobahn erotic adventure, New York: Serpent's Tail, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OL, LCC PS3569.U3449 N43 1996, page 10:

A case in point is Tula, a transgendered woman who for years lived well as a model and actress until ze was outed in both national and international media.

1997 December 18, Kate Bornstein, My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely, London, New York: Routledge, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OL, LCC HQ1075.B69 1998, page 130:

Ze takes my right hand in hirs and folds it into a fist.

2006 March 22, Leslie Feinberg, Drag King Dreams, New York: Carroll & Graf, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OL, LCC PS3556.E427 D73 2006, page 205:

Ze changed hir name to one of those New Testament names, and re-fashioned hirself into a soft, puffy, half-finished hermaphrodite nicknamed, The Pop n' Fresh Doe.

2010 October 12, Erika Lopez, The Girl Must Die: A Monster Girl Memoir, Hicken, Jeffrey, San Francisco: Monster Girl Media, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 143:

Hir face was implacable, but ze dashed away in tears.

2011 March 15, M. J. Locke, Up Against It, New York: Tor, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OL, LCC PS3612.O249 U7 2011, page 361:

(rare, nonstandard) a gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun, equivalent to singular they, and coordinate with gendered pronouns he and she.


you-uns

From you + uns, a form of ones representing an older pronunciation of it.

you'uns (alternative)
you'ns (alternative)
youuns (alternative)
youns (alternative)
youins (alternative)
you'ins (alternative)
y'ins (alternative)
y'uns (alternative)
yunz (alternative)
yuns (alternative)
yinz (alternative)
you'nes (alternative)

Guthrie turned upon him a face aglow with gratification. ‘That's what makes me like you-uns, stranger,’ he said, cordially.

1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country (Nebraska 2005), page 122

(US, Midwestern US and Appalachia) You (plural, as subject or object).

the list of other second-person pronouns in you


shoo

From Middle English schew, schowe, show, showe, scou (“shoo!”, interjection). Compare Middle High German schū, schuo (“shoo!”, interjection) (modern German scheu! (“shoo!”)), Dutch schuwen (“to shun”), German scheuchen (“to scare, drive away”).

cog

don't let the door hit you on the way out

Entries in :Category:English dismissals.

(informal, demeaning) Go away! Clear off!


you'ns

Alternative form of you-uns: a second-person plural pronoun.


one another

The raw recruits helped one another get over the first few days.

Rainy days seemed to follow one another all summer.

It is here within the state borders of Ukraine that we can confirm the strength of the borders of all European countries. We can guarantee that nobody will dare to return tyranny to our continent. It is here that the values of our Eur-Atlantic community have been revived by a people that is fighting for freedom and with other nations that help us in the struggle. We are real allies with NATO. We have covered this road to NATO. And in actual fact, we have proven that we are compatible with the standards of the alliance. They are real on the battlefield in every aspect of our cooperation. We trust one another, we help one another, and we are protecting, defending one another and that is our alliance. This is an actual alliance.

2022 September 30, 3:10 from the start, in Ukraine makes NATO membership bid following Putin's annexation of four Ukrainian regions, spoken by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Al Jazeera:

(reciprocal pronoun) Used of a reciprocal relationship among a group of two or more people or things; compare each other.

ܚܕܕܐ

Eastern vocalization: ܚܕܵܕܹܐ ħəðāðε̄, Western vocalization: ܚܕܳܕܶܐ ħəðoðe


thon

head

thon (third-person singular, gender-neutral, possessive thons, reflexive thonself)

Proposed in 1858 by Charles Crozat Converse from that + one. Compare also dialectal English and Scots thon (“that; yon”, adjective; pronoun).

Every writer has "thons" verbal likes and dislikes, yet, for the sake of convenience, I trust that even "thon" who dislikes verbal innovations will give my little word a little trial and note for me the result.

1889 November, C. Crozat Converse, “That Desired Impersonal Pronoun”, in The Writer, volume 3, number 2, Boston: William H. Hills, page 248:

Every student should acquaint thonself with some method by which thon can positively correlate the facts of thons knowledge.

1895, Henry Graham Williams, Outlines of Psychology, 3rd edition, Syracuse: C. W. Bardee, →OL, LCC BF141.W12, page 5:

In everi individɥɑl then, ɑr thε elεments ɑut ɵv hwich everi sol haz pɑuer tu ɛlaborɞt ʊntu thonself hwɵtever cɵndishʊn thon dɛzɩrz — tu mɞc fɷr thonself heven ɷr hel, hwichever thon iz wiliŋ tu strɩv fɷr.

1907 August, C. W. Larisunz, “Thε Sol:—Hwens?—Hwither?”, in Thε Jurnɑl ɵv ɷrthɵεpi & ɷrthɵgrɑfi, volume 24, number 8, page 153:

In every individual then, are the elements out of which every soul has power to elaborate unto thonself whatever condition thon desires — to make for thonself heaven or hell, whichever thon is willing to strive for.

Maybe I don't speak for the average American, but I very much doubt that thon wants that word in thons language or that thon would use it thonself.

1985, William Knowlton Zinsser, On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction, 3rd edition, New York: Harper & Row, →ISBN, →LCCN, LCC PE1429.Z5 1985, page 121:

(nonstandard, rare, see usage notes) they (singular). Gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun, coordinate with gendered pronouns he and she.

If Mr. or Mrs. A. comes to the courthouse on Monday next I will be there to meet thon.

1884 July 23, C. C. Converse, “A New Pronoun”, in The Critic and Good Literature, number 31, New York, published 1884 August 2, page 55:

I send my files to Dinsmore with a cutting note too subtle for thon to understand (thon is an imbecile, regardless of thon’s protected status).

2020, Charlie Kaufman, Antkind, →ISBN, page 102:

(nonstandard, rare, see usage notes) them (singular). Gender-neutral third-person singular object pronoun, coordinate with gendered pronouns him and her.


ya

Reduced form of you. Compare Dutch je, reduced/unstressed form of jij (“you”).

Lola got a shocked look on her face then said, “Ya need to stop actin' jealous if ya aint, and ya can't control what I do. Ya aint my daddy and ya aint my man. I'll see ya tomorrah after work if ya want. Just give me a call, ya have my number”.

2011, Byron Douglas, chapter 3, in A Journey Through the Life of an Anti-Social^([64–65]), →ISBN:


ought

From Middle English oughte, aughte, aȝte, ahte, from Old English āhte, first and third person singular past tense of Old English āgan (“to own, possess”), equivalent to owe + -t.
Cognate with Sanskrit ईश्वर (īśvará, “capable of, liable”).

cog

There are value judgments that are not reducible to observable matters of fact, and there are oughts that cannot be construed as hypothetical and, therefore, cannot be converted into statements of fact.

1996, Mortimer Jerome Adler, The Time of Our Lives: The Ethics of Common Sense:

Is there a fallacy involved in deriving an ought from a set of exclusively factual or descriptive premises?

2004, Jacques Maritain, John G. Trapani, Truth Matters: Essays in Honor of Jacques Maritain:

A statement of what ought to be the case as contrasted with what is the case.


yah

From the pronunciation of “yes” which such people use.

(British, informal) An upper-class person, especially a Sloane Ranger.


whoever

head

whoever (nominative case, objective whomever, possessive whosever)

whomever (objective)
whosever (possessive)
whoe'er (alternative poetic)
whoëver (alternative obsolete rare)

From Middle English whoever. By surface analysis, who + ever.

Whoever breaks the law will be punished.

(fused relative) Any person or persons that.

Whoever robbed that old lady ought to be locked up.

I don't know what it is. Ask whoever put it there.

(fused relative) The person that (no matter who).

I don't care who gets it; give it to whoever.


whomever

of whoever (objective)
whomsoever (alternative)

From Middle English whomever; equivalent to whom + ever.

The letter is addressed to whomever it may concern.

I'll marry whomever I want.

To impose his will on whomever he sees comfortably settled.

Yes, the tide will surely turn, and meanwhile may one who is proud to call himself a partisan, invite whomever may feel disposed to bid the "T14s" adieux, to pause before giving them valediction and accord to them the respect that is assuredly their due.

1952 January, Henry Maxwell, “Farewell to the "T14s"”, in Railway Magazine, page 57:

Whatever person or persons (as object of verb or preposition).


whichever

From Middle English qwichever, whiche ever, whiche evere, which ever, which evere; equivalent to which + ever.

Whichever you pick, be content with it.

Irrespective of the one(s) that; no matter which one(s).


whosoever

whosoever (objective whomsoever, possessive whosesoever)

whomsoever (objective)
whosesoever (possessive)
whosoëver (alternative archaic)

/huːsəʊˈɛvə/

From Middle English whosoever. By surface analysis, who + so + ever.

Whosoever partakes of this elixir shall have eternal life.

If thou do pardon whoſoeuer pray, / More ſinnes for this forgiueneſs proſper may: […]

1595 December 9 (first known performance), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedie of King Richard the Second. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Simmes for Androw Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

Whoſoeuer commeth to me, and heareth my ſayings, and doeth them, I will ſhew you to whom he is like.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 6:47:

His mercy is a panacea, a balſome for an afflicted ſoule, a Soveraigne medicine, an alexipharmacum for all ſinne, a charme for the Divell, his mercy was great to Solomon, to Manaſſes, to Peter, great to all offenders, and whoſoever thou art, it may be ſo to thee.

1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Cure of Deſpaire by Phyſick, good counſell, comforts, &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 4, member 3, subsection 6, page 707:

This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it.

1840 May 5, Thomas Carlyle, “Lecture I. The Hero as Divinity. Odin. Paganism: Scandinavian Mythology.”, in On Heroes, Hero-Worship and The Heroic in History, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1840, →OCLC, page 8:

Whosoever shall be found without the soul for getting down, must stand and face the hounds of hell

1982 (date recorded), Rod Temperton, “Thriller”, performed by Michael Jackson:

Whatever person or persons: emphasised or elaborated form of whoever.


'un

'uns (plural)
'n (alternative)
un (alternative)
in(s), 'in(s) (alternative)

The apostrophe is not justified historically: this word preserves an original pronunciation of one without an initial /w/; see one for more.

Give me one of those round 'uns.

We've got a clever 'un here!

(colloquial, facetious or dialect) One (a person).

Tom Trevarton had a piece of hoggan weth un.


somewhat

Two of the coaches are still on the site of the line; one, a first class observation coach carrying the S.R. number 6991, is at Snapper Halt, where it still stands, in fair condition but somewhat weatherbeaten […]

1942 September and October, “Notes and News: Lynton & Barnstaple Stock”, in Railway Magazine, page 309:


yours truly

Recorded in the late 1700s as a closing in a letter. Since the mid-1800s for "I", "me", or "myself".

This one was created by yours truly.

Nobody in Africa, but yours truly, can get a good head of steam on the old African Queen.

1951, C.S. Forester (novel), James Agee (screenplay), The African Queen, spoken by Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart):

Vera introduced us, and Boris was interested to hear I was a masseur. He mentioned that he had gotten a massage several times a week when he was in Hollywood—so, before you could say “Bob’s your uncle and Fanny’s your aunt,” yours truly offered the man who had made more people shiver and shake than any man alive a massage on the house.

1972 August 2, Arthur Mason, “Ol’ Magic Fingers: Karloff Was ‘Nicest Gent of Them All’”, in Oregon Journal, Portland, Ore., →OCLC, section 2 (Home and Family), page 1, column 2:

(idiomatic, informal, humorous) I, me, or myself.


hella

Related to "a hell of a". Originally Northern California slang. Compare helluv, helluva.

I guess she seems hella stoned in her commercial.

I've been a Star Wars fan since I was hella young.

"And to the fella over there / With the hella good hair / Won't you come on over, baby / We can shake, shake, shake"

The storm got hella crazy and... and you said we would be safe at the lighthouse.

2016, Life Is Strange, spoken by Chloe Price (Ashly Burch), Square Enix, via Dontnod Entertainment:

(slang, potentially considered vulgar, chiefly regional US, African-American Vernacular and Internet slang) Intensifier, modifying adjectives; to a large degree; extremely; exceedingly.

potentially considered vulgar; African-American Vernacular and Internet slang; potentially considered vulgar; African-American Vernacular and Internet slang


summit

I need to get summit to eat.

(England, especially Lancashire, Yorkshire, informal) Alternative spelling of summat (“something”).


naught

From the Middle English naught, nought, naht, nawiht, from Old English nawiht. Cognate with West Frisian neat (“nothing, naught”). Doublet of nought. Equivalent to ne + aught.

Naught can come of this, you mark my words.

My day starts where yesterday's had finished - at St Pancras, only this time on Thameslink and the subterranean station I first visited when it was naught but an empty box. Now it's a vital cross-London interchange.

2022 November 16, Paul Bigland, “From rural branches to high-speed arteries”, in RAIL, number 970, page 56:


naught

en-noun

naught (countable and uncountable, plural naughts)

(chiefly US, dated) Alternative spelling of nought.


naught

(archaic) Alternative spelling of nought (“zero”).


whomsoever

head

whomsoever (objective case of whosoever)

of whosoever (objective)
whomsoëver (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English whom so evere, whom soever, whom-so-ever, whom-so-evere, whomsoever, whom-so-evyr. By surface analysis, whom + so + ever.

We shall tell the good news to whomsoever we meet.

Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 26:48:

Whomsoever I've cured, I've sickened now / And whomsoever I've cradled, I've put you down

1994, Soundgarden, “Fell on Black Days”:

(now formal) Whatever person or persons (as object of a verb or preposition): emphasised or elaborated form of whomever.


someone else

I grabbed somebody else's coat.

einhver önnur (einhvað annað n/eitthvert annað n)


anyone else

If you’d spoken to anyone else about it, you’d have heard a very different story.

I haven’t seen anyone else here besides you and me.

Anyone else would have refused.


everyone else

Everyone else was there.

That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. [...] Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter III, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 15:


'em

From earlier hem, from Middle English hem, from Old English heom (“them”, dative) of hie, originally a dative plural form but in Middle English coming to serve as an accusative plural as well. Cognate with Dutch hun (“them”), German ihnen (“them”).
Now often treated as a form of them, which however derives from Old Norse rather than Old English.

Some are become great, ſome atcheeues greatneſſe, and ſome haue greatneſſe thruſt vppon em.

c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v], page 264, column 1:

All China is divided into ſixteen Provinces, each of which are worth more than large Kingdoms. Ten of ’em lye towards the South; Yunnan, Quanſi, Canton, Fuquiem, Chequiam, Nanxin, Kiamſi, Huquam, Suſcuem and Quicheu. The ſix towards the North are Xenſi, Scianſi, Honan, Xantung, Pekin and Leaorung, which ſeveral have called Cathai, whereas they give the name of Mangi to the Southern Provinces.

1685, Pierre Duval, “Aſia”, in Ferrand Spence, transl., Geographia Universalis: The Present State Of the Whole World, →OCLC, pages 158–159:

We cannot reasonably ſuppoſe that Adam, who was ſo univerſally Skill'd in the Natures of all Plants, ſhould have been ignorant of their Vulnerary Qualities: Or that he would not employ this his Skill in endeavouring to cure Wounds, or Hurts, when any of his new-planted Stock had the Misfortune te receive 'em.

1699, Robert Barret, A Companion for Midwives, Child-Bearing Women, and Nurses., London, Preface:

Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester, same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting ’em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 6:

Harkin: I spent twenty years working cases here on the Citadel. People on this station love to talk. Secrets are like herpes. If you got 'em, you might as well spread 'em around.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Chora's Den, Citadel:

We've literally had dozens of your photographs submitted this week – keep ’em coming!

2010 December 3, John Baron, The Guardian:

(now colloquial) Them (now only in unstressed position following a consonant).


divers

en-adj

divers (comparative more divers, superlative most divers)

more divers (comparative)
most divers (superlative)
diuers (alternative obsolete)

Also the rule of false position, with dyuers examples not onely vulgar, but some appertaynyng to the rule of Algeber.

1551, James A.H. Murray, editor, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles: Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by the Philological Society., volume 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1888, Part 1, page 217:

And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 4:24:

But to-night, the third rainy evening of three rainy days, every flower in the divers china bowls, cups, vases, was withered; the harp was out of tune with the damp; and Emily betook herself to the leafy labyrinth of a muslin flounce, la belle alliance of uselessness and industry.

1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 8:

Divers plans and numerous devices were tried to stop the leakage.

1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 112:

Shortly after this I had to go out of town. Divers sound sportsmen had invited me to pay visits to their country places, and it wasn't for several months that I settled down in the city again.

One of the most formidable of the heretical movements of the Middle Ages was Lollardy or Lollery. The Lollard movement was made up of divers elements, [...]

1949, William Dale Morris, The Christian Origins of Social Revolt, page 25:

Nevertheless, a good Turkish meal was enjoyed in the merry company of Customs men and divers gaily-caparisoned officials.

1951 December, “Notes and News: Overland to Iraq”, in Railway Magazine, page 854:

Archaic form of diverse, in the sense of various or assorted.


divers

Tubal: There came divers of Antonio’s creditors in my company to Venice that swear he cannot choose but break.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

(archaic or literary) An indefinite number (at least two).


sweet F A

(chiefly British, slang) Alternative spelling of sweet FA.


a

From Middle English a, a reduced form of he (“he”)/ha (“he”), heo (“she”)/ha (“she”), ha (“it”), and hie, hie (“they”).

a’ brushes his hat o’ mornings.

1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

Well! in a come [in he came]—KING GEORGE to town, / With doust and zweat az netmeg brown, / The hosses all in smoke;

1795, Peter Pindar, The Royal Visit to Exeter, a Political Epistle: by John Ploughshare ... published by Peter Pindar, Esq, page 5:

A do veed amang th' lilies.

"The amoighty's a taakin' o' you to 'issén, my friend," a said, […]

1864, Tennyson, N. Farmer, Old Style, st. 7, version of 1917, Raymond Macdonald Alden, Alfred Tennyson, how to Know Him, page 226

And, by your leave, for all the marvellous rich and sumptuous coat a weareth, he is very like a false jewel in a rich casing.

1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 8:

(obsolete outside England and Scotland dialects) He, she, they: the third-person singular or plural nominative.

(obsolete outside England and Scotland dialects) He, the third-person singular nominative.

A wanted me to go with her.

Did a do it!

A's getting wambling on her pins [shaky on her legs].

1883, Hardy, Tover, page 124 (edition of 1895)

(obsolete outside England and Scotland dialects) She, the third-person singular nominative.

He've a got a great venture on hand, but what a [it] be he tell'th no man.

1855, Kingsley, W. Ho!, page 120 (edition of 1889)

Doctors, they knaws nowt, fur a [they] says what's nawways true.

1864, Tennyson, N. Farmer, Old Style, st. 2


Mine

Honorific alternative letter-case form of mine, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.


Ah

African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English

Phonetic spelling of "I" in African American Vernacular English, popularized by Zora Neale Hurston


He

head

He (third-person singular masculine pronoun, oblique Him, reflexive Himself, possessive His)

Him (oblique)
Himself (reflexive)
His (possessive)

I love the Lord for He is Great and Holy.

Honorific alternative letter-case form of he, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.


Himself

Honorific alternative letter-case form of himself, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.


His

We pray that He grant us His blessings and that His will be done.

But, the individual entities of that order depend upon God and His laws for their existence.

1983, Alan Hart, Spinoza's Ethics, Part I and II: a platonic commentary, volume 1, Brill Archive, →ISBN, page 43:

Honorific alternative letter-case form of his, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.


I

I (first person singular subject personal pronoun, objective me, possessive my, possessive pronoun mine, reflexive myself)

en-pron

me (objective)
my (possessive)
mine (possessive pronoun without-noun)
myself (reflexive)

From Middle English I (also ik, ich), from Old English ih (also ic), from Proto-West Germanic *ik, from Proto-Germanic *ik, *ek (“I”), from Proto-Indo-European *éǵh₂ (“I”).
Cognate with Scots I, ik, A (“I”), Saterland Frisian iek (“I”), West Frisian ik (“I”), Dutch ik (“I”), Low German ik (“I”), German ich (“I”), Bavarian i (“I”), Yiddish איך (ikh, “I”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål jeg (“I”), Norwegian Nynorsk eg (“I”), Swedish jag (“I”), Icelandic ég, eg (“I”), Gothic 𐌹𐌺 (ik, “I”), and more remotely with Latin ego (“I”), Ancient Greek ἐγώ (egṓ, “I”), Russian я (ja, “I”), Lithuanian aš (“I”), Armenian ես (es, “I”), Northern Kurdish ez, Sanskrit अहम् (ahám, “I”), Hittite 𒌑𒊌 (ūk, “I”). See also English ich. Doublet of ego and Ich.
Capitalized since 13th century to mark it as a distinct word and prevent misreading and omission (due to cursive writing).

I wouldn't piss on someone if they were on fire

The following table shows a list of English personal pronoun

including archaic and dialectal forms. Dialectal and obsolete

archaic forms are in italics. 1 See Appendix:English third-person singular pronouns for attested neopronoun.

[…]It ill beſeemes a knight of gentle ſort, / Such as ye haue him boaſted, to beguyle / A ſimple maide, and worke ſo hainous tort, / In ſhame of knighthood, as I largely can report.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 414:

Here I am, sir.

1854, Gustave Chouquet, Easy Conversations in French, page 9:

I know I have a pen, though…

2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

The speaker or writer, referred to as the grammatical subject, of a sentence.

(usually indicated by the suffix only) -ok, -ek, -ök

mình

Vietnamese uses a series of kinship terms, names and professions for both "I" and "you" (instead of professions), depending on gender, age, social status and relationship between speakers.


Majesty

From an alternative capitalization of English majesty, from Middle English maieste, mageste, from Old French majesté, from Latin māiestās, derived from Proto-Indo-European *meǵh₂s (“great”).

His/Her/Your Majesty

a term of address for royalty and imperiality


Me

(computing) Windows Me (Millennium Edition).


Oi

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(south west England) Pronunciation spelling of I.


R

head

R (upper case, lower case r, plural Rs or R's)

From the Etruscan letter 𐌓 (r, “er”), from the Ancient Greek letter Ρ (R, “rho”), derived from the Phoenician letter 𐤓 (r, “reš”), from the Egyptian hieroglyph 𓁶.

The eighteenth letter of the English alphabet, called ar and written in the Latin script.


R

The ordinal number eighteenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called ar and written in the Latin script.


R

(Philippines) region, in the sense of the regions of the Philippines


R

One needs to be careful, however, to distinguish between original P and the work of the later priestly Redactor (R), who edited P and other documents in the postexilic period.

2006, David Ringo Miano, Shadow on the steps (dissertation), UC San Diego, page 5:

documentary hypothesis
documentary hypothesis

(religion) In the context of the documentary hypothesis, the Redactor(s) who compiled and edited the Torah.


xe

xe (third-person singular, gender-neutral, nominative case, oblique xem, reflexive xyrself or xirself or xemself, possessive xyr or xir)

en-pron

xem (oblique)
xyrself (reflexive)
xirself (reflexive)
xemself (reflexive)
xyr (possessive)
xir (possessive)

Apparently independently invented by several people, including Don Rickter. The pronoun appeared in the Unitarian Universalist publication UU World on May 1, 1973, and Mario Pei gave Rickter credit on page 145 of his book Weasel Words (1978).

Anyone I would be interested in would have to be a pretty special person. I wouldn't want to miss out on knowing such a person just because xe happened to be the "wrong" sex.

1992, Jim Sinclair, “If you could choose...”, in Jim Sinclair's Web Site, archived from the original on 2003-11-03:

Telepathy would require that you share the other person's knowledge of xyr own mind, which in turn requires recognizing that xe is actually aware of what xe's thinking, which is incompatible with psychiatry.

1993 September 14, Jim Sinclair, “Re: Jim and Steve's snoring discussion”, in bit.listserv.autism (Usenet), message-ID <AUTISM%93091417074261@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>:

Now full ownership in the modern sense... implies four rights of the owner: 1. The right to decide what xe does with xyr property; 2. the right to decide what others do with xyr property; […]

1999 April 28, Dagmar Alpen, “Re: Think of a small tribe of people...”, in talk.politics.libertarian (Usenet), message-ID <7g74qb$8sq$1@rzsun02.rrz.uni-hamburg.de>:

Since xe went to the trouble of re-posting, I figured it was about something of more than usual importance to hir... I wrote to EmGee privately and xe said yes, that was one of the things xe was talking about.

2000 December 11, Mary Ellen Curtin, “Silencing and ad hominem attacks”, in alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated (Usenet), message-ID <074d01c06393$c1a2fb00$5be9cfcf@default>:

I mean, suppose there's someone who can't leave the house because xe's all tied up with counting tiles in the bathroom all day, and if xe manages to get done with that, there's the stove to check again and again ... you get the idea.

2002 March 3, Ken von Mattell, “Re: Newbie...not quite sure yet...”, in alt.suicide.holiday (Usenet), message-ID <rif48uc0ja9q3km9o2jf167d4u4o3qpk1k@4ax.com>:

The soft blue sky had the feel of a good omen. In Xir old age, the god moved slower every year; lingering in the shallows long after the last fish had been swallowed up by nets. Sometimes Xe stood still for days, in sight of the shore, as if Xe had not quite decided whether to beach Xemself for good. Let Xem only survive long enough to spawn a new god! Else Xir helpless people would be godless ans stranded in the haunted dryland where the dead cities slept. Where less kindly deities roamed.

2023, Aimee Ogden, “A Half-Remembered World”, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol. 145, no. 1-2, whole no. 768 (July/August 2023), pages 146-202

(nonstandard) they (singular). Gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun, coordinate with gendered pronouns he and she.


thor

head

thor (possessive determiner, possessive pronoun thors)


mickle

en-adj

mickle (comparative more mickle, superlative most mickle)

more mickle (comparative)
most mickle (superlative)

From Middle English mickle, michel, mikel, mochel, muchel, mukel (“much; many; large, tall; great”), from Old English miċel, myċel (“big, large; great; much”), from Proto-Germanic *mikilaz (“great, large; many, much”), from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s (“big, great”). The word is cognate with Faroese mikil (“large, great, much”), Icelandic mikill (“large in quantity or number; much; great”), Middle High German michel (“large, much”). Doublet of much and muckle.
For the adverb and noun forms, compare Middle English muchel (“extensively, greatly, much”, adverb) and Middle English muchel (“large amount”, noun).
The noun sense “a small amount” was due to the proverb many a little makes a mickle being incorrectly rendered as many a mickle makes a muckle, leading to mickle being thought to mean “a small quantity” and muckle to mean “a large quantity”, even though muckle is a variant of mickle and both mean “a large quantity”.

cog

Oh mickle is the powerfull grace that lies / In hearbes, plants, ſtones, and their true qualities: / For nought ſo vile, that vile on earth doth liue, / But to the earth ſome ſpeciall good doth giue: […]

c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] Romeo and Juliet. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, published 1597, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

O Jupiter! whose ſtrength is mickle, / Was ever man in ſuch a pickle!

1772, [Thomas Bridges], “Homer’s Iliad. Book VIII.”, in A Burlesque Translation of Homer, London: Printed for S. Hooper, […], →OCLC, page 325:

In the Den of Kinraddie one such beast had its lair […] and at gloaming a shepherd would see it, with its great wings half-folded across the great belly of it and its head, like the head of a meikle cock, but with the ears of a lion, poked over a fir tree, watching.

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon [pseudonym; James Leslie Mitchell], “Prelude: The Unfurrowed Field”, in Sunset Song: A Novel, London: Jarrolds, Limited, →OCLC; republished Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2008, →ISBN, page 1:

(archaic, now chiefly Scotland and Northern England, especially Northumbria) (Very) great or large.


mickle

They ſay here, […] that ye deſired not the king and England to agree, becauſe it would rack the noblemen, […] I anſwered in your name that I was aſſured you had never ſpoken it. Mr. Archibald [Douglas] is the ſpeaker of it, who I aſſure your lordſhip has been a poiſon in this matter, for they lean very mickle to his opinion.

1586 January 12, the Master of Gray [i.e., Patrick Gray, 6th Lord Gray], “[Appendix to the Second Volume] To the Right Hon. My Lord Chancellor and Secretary to His Majesty, from the Master of Gray”, in William Robertson, The History of Scotland during the Reigns of Queen Mary and of King James VI. till His Accession to the Crown of England. […] In Two Volumes, 4th edition, volume II, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Millar, […], published 1761, →OCLC, page 445:

[…] I livd in a house by the Tower, which has not been repaird since Robert Consull of Gloucester repayrd the castle and wall; here I livd warm, but in my house on the hyll the ayre was mickle keen, […]

1778, Thomas Warton, “Section XXVI”, in The History of English Poetry, from the Close of the Eleventh to the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century, London: For, and sold by, J. Dodsley [et al.], →OCLC; republished as The History of English Poetry, from the Eleventh to the Seventeenth Century. […], London: Ward, Lock, and Co., […], 1875, →OCLC, page 424:

[…] I am without fenzeitnes of hart and ſpreit; and of gude reſſoun, thocht [though] my meritis were mickle greiter than of the maiſt profit that ever was, […]

1790, John Whitaker, chapter VI, in Mary Queen of Scots Vindicated. … In Three Volumes, 2nd enlarged and corrected edition, volume I, London: Printed for J[ohn] Murray, […], →OCLC, § IV, page 478:

That I wad wi' a' my heart; and mickle obliged to your honour for putting me in mind o' my bounden duty.

1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], chapter XIX, in Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 282:

(archaic, now chiefly Scotland) To a great extent.


mickle

en-noun

mickle (countable and uncountable, plural mickles)

Many a little makes a mickle.

Neurthelesse little or mickle, something or nothing, substaunce or shadow take all in good part, my meaning is by a fewe wordes to wynne credit to this works, not so much for mine owne Englishe Translation as for the singular commendation of them, challenged of dutie and desart.

1576, Iohannes Caius [i.e., John Caius], “To the Reader”, in Abraham Fleming, transl., Of Englishe Dogges, the Diuersities, the Names, the Natures, and the Properties. […], imprinted at London: By [John Charlewood for] Rychard Johnes, […], →OCLC; republished London: Printed by A. Bradley, […], 1880, →OCLC:

In a word, I muſt know what I may gaine, little or much: for the henne layes aſwell vpon one egge as many, and many littles make a mickle, and whilſt ſomething is gotten, nothing is loſt.

1620, [Miguel de Cervantes], “What Passed betwixt Don Quixote and His Squire, with Other Most Famous Accidents”, in Thomas Shelton, transl., The Second Part of the History of the Valorous and Witty Knight-errant, Don Quixote of the Mancha. […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Edward Blount, →OCLC, page 41:

Many of the great fortunes in this country have been built up of pence and halfpence—I might also say of farthings. The odd halfpenny and three-farthings that you see (if you look close) upon the ticketed article in the shop-window, forms one of the littles; and a profit of hundreds of pounds, or often thousands, at the end of the year, forms the mickle.

1874, P. B. Power, “Two-edged Proverbs: II.—‘Every Little Makes a Mickle.’”, in The Quiver: An Illustrated Magazine for Sunday and General Reading, volume IX, London, Paris: Cassell, Petter & Galpin, →OCLC, page 772, column 1:

(archaic, chiefly Scotland) A great amount.

While we boast of our farming, we must repeat again and again, the secret of our prosperity. It is a regular rotation of crops, making a little out of many articles, rather than attempting to make much of one; remembering the Scotch proverb, that "many a mickle makes a muckle"; […]

1831 December 3, “Improvements”, in Samuel Hazard, editor, Hazard’s Register of Pennsylvania: Devoted to the Preservation of Facts and Documents, and Every Kind of Useful Information Respecting the State of Pennsylvania, volume VIII, number 23 (issue 205 overall), Philadelphia, Pa.: Printed by Wm. F. Geddes, […], →OCLC, page 367, column 2:

(archaic, Scotland, originally erroneous) A small amount.


mickle

There was mickle melody at that Childës [Jesus Christ's] birth, / All that were in heaven's bliss, they made mickle mirth.

15th century, “O Jesu Parvule”, in Edith Rickert, compiler, Ancient English Christmas Carols: MCCCC to MDCC (The New Medieval Library), London: Chatto & Windus; New York, N.Y.: Duffield & Co., published 1910, →OCLC, part I (Carols of the Nativity), page 67:

Full many wounds in his corrupted fleſh / He did engraue, and muchell blood did ſpend, / Yet might not doe him die, but aie more freſh / And fierce he ſtill appeard, the more he did them threſh.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 32, page 503:

Hees forc't to trot with fardle at his backe, / From houſe to houſe, demaunding if they lacke / A poore yong man that's willing to take paine, / And mickle labour, though for little gaine.

1597–1598, T[homas] M[iddleton], “Satyre 2. Prodigall Zodon.”, in Micro-cynicon: Sixe Snarling Satyres. […], imprinted at London: By Thomas Creede, for Thomas Bushell, […], published 1599, →OCLC; republished as [Edward Vernon Utterson], editor, Micro-cynicon: Sixe Snarling Satyres, [Ryde, Isle of Wight?]: Reprinted at the Beldornie Press, by G. E. Palmer, for Edwd. V. Utterson, 1842, →OCLC:

Becauſe they did not faithfully believe, and hope that he / Could alwaies help and ſuccor them in their neceſſitie. / Wherefore he did command the clouds, forthwith they brake in ſunder, / And rain'd down Manna for them to eat, a food of mickle wonder.

1675, Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins [et al.], “The Whole Book of Psalms: Collected into English Meeter”, in The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments: […], Oxford: At the Theater, →OCLC, Psalm lxxviij:22–24:

(archaic, now chiefly Scotland and Northern England, especially Northumbria) Much; a great quantity or amount of.


mickle

meikle (alternative)
michel (alternative)
muchell (alternative)

Seek mickle, and get ſomething; ſeek little, and get nothing.

1721, James Kelly, A Complete Collection of Scotish Proverbs Explained and Made Intelligible to the English Reader, London: Printed for William and John Innys, and John Osborn, →OCLC, paragraph 50, page 291:

(archaic, now chiefly Scotland) A great extent or large amount.


ch

ch (countable and uncountable, plural chs)

Abbreviation of chain (“a unit of measurement equal to 22 yards”).

(crochet) Abbreviation of chain (stitch)

5.1 ch surround sound

Abbreviation of channel, in reference to telephones, audio, radio, and television.

NAME OF HORSE (COLOR, SEX, YEAR BORN)
Secretariat (ch.s. 1970)

2014, Kenneth Hinchcliff, Andris Kaneps, Raymond Geor, Equine Sports Medicine and Surgery, page 675:

Abbreviation of chestnut (“a dark reddish-brown colored horse”).


ch

Ch 4, sl st to 1st sl st to close.

2011 August 23, Carmen Heffernan, “How to make colourful crocheted flowers”, in The Guardian:


sth

sth. (alternative)
sthg (alternative)
smth (alternative)

ngt

abbreviation of something in explanation


hu

head

hu (third-person singular, nominative case, reflexive huself)

Clipping of human, first offered for usage by Mikhail Epstein, professor of cultural theory at Emory University (in 2003).

Hu is fond of enigmas, of conundrums, of hieroglyphics; exhibiting in hus solutions of each and all a degree of acumen which appears to the ordinary apprehension preternatural.

2002 January 3, Bryan T. McMahon, quoting Sasha Newborn, “A terrible book”, in The Ponchatoula Times, page 7:

When the lecturer arrives, hu will be speaking on the topic of anonymity.

2003 October 14, Mikhail Epstein, “"Hu," from "human," as a gender-neutral pronoun”, in (Usenet), message-ID <f732cdb7.0310141153.6c715df8@posting.google.com>:

It's the vice-president's job to support the president and take hus place when hu is away.

2007 November 29, Mikhail Epstein, “hu”, in International Society for Universal Dialog, archived from the original on 2012-01-02:

Maybe, but if his/herstory's any guide, hu has hu work cut out for hu.

2008 March, Christoph Hitz, “Hu, Me?”, in Mother Jones, →ISSN:

(neologism) they (singular). Gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun, coordinate with gendered pronouns he and she.

One of his favorite metaphors for the historian, drawn from the "Preface" to Hegel's Philosophy of Right, likens hu to the owl of Minerva, whose flight at dusk provided the setting for mature reflection on the day that had passed.

2006, Perry Anderson with Glenn Burgess, edited by D. N. DeLuna, The Political Imagination in History: Essays Concerning J.G.A. Pocock, Owlworks, →ISBN, page 175:

(neologism) them (singular). Gender-neutral third-person singular object pronoun, coordinate with gendered pronouns him and her.

Now, however, the editorial writer has a new weapon in hu arsenal.

2006 October 1, “He said, she said, hu said”, in Los Angeles Times:

If hu doesn't do hu homework, I will fail hu.

2006 November 17, Rob Kyff, “Hu Joins Heesh As Neutral Pronoun”, in Hartford Courant, archived from the original on 2016-03-05:

(neologism) their (singular). Gender-neutral third-person singular possessive adjective, coordinate with his and her.


you name it

→ Danish: you name it

→ German: you name it

There were ducks, geese, swans, you name it on the lake.

- What can you buy over the Internet?
- You name it.

By Monday afternoon we were finished - loadwise, physically, mentally, you name it, we'd had a gutful of it.

2000, Bob Foster, Birdum or Bust!, Henley Beach, SA: Seaview Press, page 114:

(informal, idiomatic) All kinds of things; expresses that further examples are unnecessary, often after a short list of items.


nothing to write home about

The vegetables were okay, but the soup was nothing to write home about.

(idiomatic) Not exceptional; not noteworthy or especially good.

ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard

damit kann man keinen Hund hinter dem Ofen hervorlocken


sich

Borrowed from Ukrainian Січ (Sič), from Ukrainian сікти (sikty, “to chop”), alluding to the clearing of a forest for an encampment, or the building of a fort with trees that have been cut down.

Zaporizhian Sich
Zaporozhian Cossacks
sich rada

(historical) An administrative and military centre for the Zaporozhian and Danube Cossacks.

sitch

administrative and military centre for Cossacks


buddy

First appears c. 1788, in the writings of Charles Dibdin, of uncertain origin. Possibly from *bruddy, *bruthy, a child-talk alteration of brother. Alternatively, perhaps from British colloquial butty (“companion”), also the form of an older dialect term meaning workmate, associated with coal mining. Itself believed derived from 1530 as booty fellow, a partner with whom one shares booty or loot. Alternatively, compare Scots buddo, bodda (“buddy, kiddo, dear”), related to Icelandic budda (“purse"; also "short, stout person”).

unc

uncertain

cog

I found some earphones in the pocket, buddy must have been pissed.

Buddy's loaded. 'Got like three houses.

(Maritime English) A person far removed from the conversation.


uz

(Geordie) Alternative spelling of us (“me”).


some one

“But she will be gained by some one else. And if that some one should be the very he whom, of all others, I could least bear—But I will not stay to rob myself of all your compassionate good-will, by shewing that where I have most injured I can least forgive. Good bye,—God bless you!” And with these words, he almost ran out of the room.

1811, [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume III, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, pages 185–186:

A company of young lads or men, generally went in old times on what they termed the Qualtagh, at Christmas or New Year's Day to the house of their more wealthy neighbours; some one of the company repeating in an audible voice the following rhyme:– […] they were then invited in to partake of the best that the house could afford.

1835, Archibald Cregeen, “Quaal′tagh or Qual′tagh”, in A Dictionary of the Manks Language, with the Corresponding Words or Explanations in English; […], Douglas, Isle of Man: […] J. Quiggin, […]; Whittaker, Treacher, and Arnot, […]; Evans, Chegwin, and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 132, column 2:

I got a spade from the toolhouse, and began to delve with all my might—it scraped the coffin; I fell to work with my hands; the wood commenced cracking about the screws, I was on the point of attaining my object, when it seemed that I heard a sigh from some one above, close at the edge of the grave, and bending down.

1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XV, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume II, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC, page 304:

When a healthy child suddenly becomes sickly, and no one can account for the change, the child is said to be "forespoken." Or when a stout man or woman becomes hypochondriac, or affected with nervous complaints, he or she is "forespoken." Some one has perhaps said "He's a bonny bairn," or "Thou ar' lookin weel the day;" but they have spoken with an ill tongue. They have neglected to add, "God save the bairn," or, "Safe be thou," &c.

1854 September 16, “F.”, “Orkney Charms”, in Notes and Queries, volume X, number 225, London: George Bell, →OCLC, page 221:

Ah, why the divil, Puddock, do you keep them ould women's charrums and divilments, about you—you'll be the death of some one yet, so you will.

1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “Æsculapius to the Rescue”, in The House by the Church-yard. […], volume I, London: Tinsley, Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 146:

What they wanted was to put forth their might without any more palaver; to do something, or for some one; to go out somewhere and smash something, on the spot—why not?—that very night.

1886, Henry James, chapter XXI, in The Princess Casamassima, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 83:


ey

head

ey (third-person singular, nominative case, accusative em, possessive adjective eir, possessive noun eirs, reflexive emself)

em (accusative)
eir (adjective possessive)
eirs (noun possessive)
emself (reflexive)

Coined by Christine M. Elverson in 1975 by removing the "th" from they.

Eir sentences would sound smoother since ey wouldn't clutter them with the old sexist pronouns. And if ey should trip up in the new usage, ey would only have emself to blame.

1975 August 23, Judie Black, “Ey has a word for it”, in Chicago Tribune, section 1, page 12:

I'm not familiar with this book, but I encourage Marksmill to look for it-- and while ey is at it, to also look at a number of other books.

1996 December 22, Shirley Worth, “New To Yoga”, in alt.yoga (Usenet), message-ID <32BDCA0C.6C8@worth.org>:

If a mobile user is far from eir home area, ey will pay a long-distance fee for carriage of the call *from* eir home area, just as a caller would pay long-distance on a call *to* that area.

1997 November 25, Scott Robert Dawson, “Who Pays for Cellular Calls”, in alt.cellular (Usenet), message-ID <347acf56.333719@news.interlog.com>:

(rare, epicene, nonstandard) A gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun, one of the so-called Spivak pronouns, equivalent to the singular they and coordinate with gendered pronouns he and she.


whatsoever

/ˌwɒtsəʊˈɛvə(ɹ)/

From Middle English whatsoever. By surface analysis, what + so + ever.

what-so-ever (alternative rare)
whatsomever (alternative archaic)
whatsoe're (alternative obsolete)

He gave me no answer whatsoever.

In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 1:

...my father's role as the ecclesiastical leader of our ward gave me no license whatsoever to expect obedience from my agemates?

2019, Dierdre Nicole Green, “'I'm the Bishop!' and other Reflections”, in A Place to Belong, Deseret Book, →ISBN, page 141:


which's

Do you happen to know if - gosh, I've forgotten his name - from the zoo film unit is still operating at that little film studio which's name I've also forgot?

2001, Jane Goodall, Beyond Innocence: An Autobiography in Letters : the Later Years, page 116:

(colloquial, nonstandard, proscribed) Of which; alternative to inanimate sense of “whose”.


i'

Thou speak'st with all thy wit; / And yet, i' faith, with wit enough for thee.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], line 44:


suchlike

suchlikes (plural)
such like (alternative)
such-like (alternative)

From Middle English sich like, suche-like, swylk lyk; equivalent to such + like.

Entertainment is the name of the media game which may include your telling about why the book was written, fun stuff about completing the manuscript […] or suchlikes to liven the interview.

1999, William Carroll, Self Publishing Made Easy, page 229:


mines

Variation of mine, formed with the final -s of the other possessive pronouns: ours, yours, theirs, etc.

(nonstandard, proscribed, informal) Alternative form of mine (“belonging to me”).


SWIM

SWIM would like to know how to grow marijuana.

(Internet) Someone who isn't me; someone who isn't myself


all that

Near-synonyms: and all that, and that, and all, and stuff

Snuff, or the Fan, supply each Pauſe of Chat,
With ſinging, laughing, ogling, and all that.

1714, Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock: An Heroi-Comical Poem. In Five Canto's. [sic], Second Edition, London: Bernard Lintott, Canto III, p. 20

He has been all among the worshippers of Fire in Persia and has seen Persepolis and all that.

1809, Lord Byron, letter (to Henry Drury), 25 Jun 1809

That, and everything similar; all of that kind of thing; and so on, et cetera.


all that

She's not as smart as all that.

The exact amount, quantity, or level referred to.


all that

How was the musical? ~ Not all that good. The star doesn’t sing all that well.

... due to the fact that the operators on the third shift at Kennedy were not all that—you know, they weren't the A Team—they had gotten themselves in a sequence where they dropped power on the vehicle.

2000, John Aaron, Johnson Space Center Oral History Project:

My muffin top is all that / whole-grain, low-fat / I know you want a piece of that / but I'm just here to dance / […] / So back up offa me / You're weirding me out

2006, Robert Carlock, “Jack-Tor”, in 30 Rock, season 1, episode 5:

(US, slang) Of especially good quality; particularly excellent.


all that

We do not have all that much time to finish.

By now, I hope that you are getting the message that life really isn't all that complicated.

2023 March 8, James R. Schmalenberg, Life Really Isn’t All That Complicated: But You Do Have To Think, FriesenPress, →ISBN, page 13:

(idiomatic, in negative constructions) Very.


quisquis

Shared with quisquous and quiscoskos; from Latin quisquis (“whosoever”) or by reduplication of Latin quis (“of what kind”).


ve

ve (third-person singular, nominative case, accusative ver, possessive adjective vis, possessive noun vers, reflexive verself)

ver (accusative)
vis (adjective possessive)
vers (noun possessive)
verself (reflexive)

First proposed by Philologus in the July 1864 Ladies' Repository, with possessive vis and objective vim, as an alternative to using "he or she," singular they, or one in sentences without a specified gender. In 1970, Varda One proposed ve, vis and objective ver in a feminist article titled "Manglish." Greg Egan used the pronouns throughout the novels Distress (1995) and Diaspora (1998).

And stop calling it 'it': yer got yer one great invention, remember Holmes? The neuter personal pronoun; ve/ver/vis, I am not his, vis/ve/ver, nor am I for her, ver/vis/ve, a pronoun for me, (slopping another tin of water out ready).

[1984, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, reprint edition, New York: Penguin Books, published 1986, →ISBN, pages 425–426:

Ve held up vis right hand; I reached down and took it, and began to haul ver up; ve shook vis head impatiently.

1995, Greg Egan, Distress, reprint edition, London: Phoenix, published 1996, →ISBN, page 223:

Yatima felt distinctly stretched by the process—but vis symbols were still connected to each other in the same way as before. Ve was still verself.

1997, Greg Egan, Diaspora, reprint edition, New York: HarperPrism, published 1998, →ISBN, page 52:

(rare, epicene, nonstandard) Gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun, equivalent to singular they.


idem

From Middle English idem, borrowed from Latin idem (“the same”).


naff all

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Nothing (variant of fuck all).


ch-

(obsolete, attached to following verb) I; clitic form of ich.


utchy

A modification of utch, ich, iche, from Middle English ich (“I”, pronoun), from Old English iċ (“I”, pronoun), from Proto-Germanic *ik, *ek (“I”, pronoun), from Proto-Indo-European *éǵh₂ (“I”). Doublet of che.
Recorded in use in the area around Yeovil in southern Somerset.

What shall utchy do?

[It is, manifestly, a corrupt pronunciation of Ich, or Ichè, pronounced as two syllables, the Anglo-Saxon word for I. What shall utchy do? What shall I do. I think Chaucer sometimes uses iche as a dissyllable; […]]

1869, James Jennings, The Dialect of the West of England: Particularly Somersetshire, page 69:

[page 11:] As valled out, utchy come across en out to Clinkerbell Barn[…]
[page 63:] Let utchy bide, cassen!
[page 81:] Only let en lay 's han' 'pon u t c h y! 'Ch'ill zmoor en doown! 'Ch'ill gie en the backzwrd cut!

(West Country, Somerset, obsolete, personal) I


owt

From Old English āuht, āuhtes; see aught.

“I’ve never seen owt like it,” said Hancox. “There were flags everywhere, people on people’s shoulders, crowdsurfing. It was like human Jenga.”

2024 July 14, Rachel Hall, “‘I’ve never seen owt like it’: England fans in Benidorm in high spirits before Euro final”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

You can fill your life with love / You can fill your life with owt / You can fill your lifе with food and drink / Or whatever floats your boat

2025, “The Hymn of the North”, in Jarvis Cocker (lyrics), More, performed by Pulp:


nought

From Middle English nought, noght, noȝt, from Old English nōwiht, nāwiht, which in turn comes from ne-ā-wiht, which was a phrase used as an emphatic "no", meaning "not anything". Equivalent to ne + ought or ne + a + wight. Doublet of naught and not.


th'

1. Th’art kinde.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 132, column 1:


't

He could not miſſe't.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 6, column 2:

Then marke th’inducement. Thus it came; giue heede too’t:

1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv], page 217, column 1:

(archaic or eye dialect) Contraction of it.

What was all that about?
Well, like all women, she's shoe-mad.
't’s a bit sexist, isn't it?
Do you know one woman who isn't obsessed with shoes?
No, but I only know one woman. And she just left the room shouting "THE SHOES!"

2006 February 3, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, season 1, episode 2:


cha

Pronunciation spelling of you, especially when preceded by a t sound.

pronunciation spelling of

You mean you can't fly after you've had a few beers? You can drive, can't cha?

Don't cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me?

2005, Busta Rhymes, CeeLo Green, “Don't Cha”, performed by Pussycat Dolls:

“You'll be ridin' with us, won't cha, Josh?”

2008, Barbara L. Jent, The Weddin' Day, Barbara Jent, →ISBN, page 157:


shi

The mother was Chakat Goldfur and the sire was Garrek Redfox (foxtaur) so she has the same red fur but cougar-like markings. Of course shi’s still only a cub yet, but if shi grows up to look anything like the your Jaguar-Vixen, shi’s going to be a heartbreaker!

1999 november 20, "Chakat Goldfur" (username), Furry Art on Ebay...horrible shameless plug, alt.fan.furry, Usenet

> Unlike most Furry Hermaphrodites I've seen, Clash is fairly
> androgynous. Shi is remarkable in hir modesty.
>
> But shi IS rather naughty, as you can see.

2001 January 25, "Achowth Keciyl" (username), quoting "A. Seraph" (username), Fur: The one and only Herm Gengimal, in fur.artwork.erotica, Usenet

Dropping hir forebody down just a little, shi bent over double at the waist. Andrew's eyes blinked open as whiskers met his cheeks just before feline lips. He purred to hir and reached up to caress hir back as shi kissed him ...

2006, Kenneth Fox, Joined in Mind and Body, Kenneth Fox, →ISBN, page 230:

(furry fandom, rare) Alternative form of sie (gender-neutral pronoun).


xem

1997, Jared Blackburn, in bit.listserv.autism http://groups.google.com/group/bit.listserv.autism/msg/b20545b793ca6c1e?dmode=source&hl=en
Still, most parents have some intuitive understanding that "our child is not like us, maybe someone like xem could help...."

The soft blue sky had the feel of a good omen. In Xir old age, the god moved slower every year; lingering in the shallows long after the last fish had been swallowed up by nets. Sometimes Xe stood still for days, in sight of the shore, as if Xe had not quite decided whether to beach Xemself for good. Let Xem only survive long enough to spawn a new god! Else Xir helpless people would be godless ans stranded in the haunted dryland where the dead cities slept. Where less kindly deities roamed.

2023, Aimee Ogden, “A Half-Remembered World”, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol. 145, no. 1-2, whole no. 768 (July/August 2023), pages 146-202


His Holiness

He had an audience with His Holiness the Pope.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

An honorific or title used to refer to a high-ranking religious leader.

Негово светейшество

cf. Ваше светейшество n (Vaše svetejšestvo)

jego świątobliwość (cf. wasza świątobliwość f)


missen

Here's to yaw an me, an to mi wife's husband, noan forgettin misen!


s/he

head

s/he (third person singular, plural they)

they (plural)
(s)he (alternative)
he/she (alternative)

Born as Neil Andrew Megson in Manchester, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge grew up in Essex. S/he was a member of radical art collective COUM Transmissions in the late 1960s, and went on to form Throbbing Gristle with Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson and Chris Carter.

2020 March 14, Martin Belam, “Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV leader Genesis Breyer P-Orridge dies aged 70”, in The Guardian:

they

sometimes proscribed; grammatically plural but semantically singular


(s)he

s/he (alternative)
she/he (alternative)
he/she (alternative)

He or she; singular of they, used as a gender-neutral form of the third person singular.


noting

To a man of honour a kick is noting, a blow is noting, de soul is de abode of glory, honour, pride.


urs

The anniversary of the death of a Sufi saint, celebrated with music and ritual.


your all's

From your + all + -'s, formed after you all.

And yet, your all’s close questioning goes right to the heart of the discrimination and everything else, and that’s the basis of their operation.

1982, United States Senate Committee on Finance, Tuition Tax Credit Proposals http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=OCLC09290207&id=p88KC1hVqHcC&q=%22your+all%27s%22&dq=%22your+all%27s%22&pgis=1

1998, Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0061097314&id=O-XiVJO1K1gC&pg=PA253&lpg=PA253&dq=%22your+all%27s%22&sig=5Da_gaMm3H8qL9XdRqNEJb2XkMg
“Bless your all’s hearts,” she said. “Take good care.”

2004, George Pelecanos, Soul Circus http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0446611425&id=RCjLCwr8XikC&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=%22your+all%27s%22&sig=cqBMtWCUeBgQTgUcwVxmTXWiDbM
“He might say somethin’ to our mother. I don’t want her stressin’ over me.”
“I can understand that. We don’t need to be worryin’ your all’s moms.”

(colloquial, nonstandard) Belonging to the multiple persons being addressed.


what's-his-name

what's-her-name (alternative)
what's-his-face (alternative)
who's-his-face (alternative)
who's-his-name (alternative)
what's-his-butt (alternative)

I left his arm that night myself / For what's-his-name's, the new prose-poet / Who wrote the book there, on the shelf

And 'St—'st—'st and What's-his-name, and also You-know-who— / The task of filling up the blanks I'd rather leave to you.

1885, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, […] The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu, London: Chappel & Co., […], →OCLC:

A male person or entity whose name one does not remember or want to mention but that is known to the person to which one is speaking.

مَا اِسْمَهُ

A person or entity whose name one does not remember

kak-se-zove

since it can refer to anything of any sex, it is one of the most common Serbo-Croatian buzzwords, some people using it in every other sentence


'um

They call themselves gentlemen, I warrant you; but, as my first husband used to say, they should remember it is we that pay them. And to be sure it is very hard upon us to be obliged to pay them, and to keep 'um too, as we publicans are.

1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:


wot

Fer, as the poit sez, me 'eart 'as got / The pip wiv yearnin' fer - I dunno wot.

1915, C.J. Dennis, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, published 1916, page 13:

Wot’s in! Great games! […] WHO DUZ WOT

1992 March, Phil King, editor, Zzap!64, Ludlow, Shropshire: Europress Impact Ltd, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 5–6:


hern

From Middle English hiren, hirne, from the same source as her. The -n was added (especially in the speech of the Midlands and Southern England, starting in the 1300s) by analogy with mine and thine. (Compare ourn.) Displaced in standard speech by the -s form, hers, which see for more. Cognate with West Flemish heurn (“hern”).

(obsolete outside British and US dialects, especially Appalachia) Hers; her own.


'er

A representation of the pronunciation of her by a speaker whose dialect lacks the voiceless glottal fricative or transition ([h]).


'im

It was the first time I seen ’im since that day of that picnic, weeks ago, and he looked real changed—thin and peakèd-like.

2023, Henry Grinberg, Wild About Harry, London: Austin Macauley Publishers, →ISBN:

(colloquial, chiefly Scotland) Representing a pronunciation of him that drops the h.


whoso

whoso (objective whomso, possessive whoseso)

whomso (objective)
whoseso (possessive)
who so (alternative)

From Middle English hoe so, hoo so, hoo-so, hos, hose, ho so, ho-so, hwao-se, hwa se, hwase, hwa swa, hwo se, hwo so, oso, qhooso, qua sa, qua-so, quo so, quo-so, quuo-so, qwa se, wah-swa, wea swa, whas, whasa, whase, wha so, wha-so, wha sua, wha swa, wha-swa, whoo so, whos, whose, who so, who-so, whoso, wos, wo-se, wose, wo so, woso, wua sua, from Old English hwā swā; equivalent to who + so.

Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 23:20-21:

And whoso findeth by the sea
Blown dust of bones will hardly say
If this were that Aholibah.

1866, Algernon Swinburne, Aholibah, lines 148-150:

Whoso raises his hand against you must answer to my sword.

And whoso kisseth those apples high, Who kisseth once is a king, Who kisseth twice shall never die, Who kisseth thrice--oh, were it I.

1896, Richard Le Gallienne, The Quest of the Golden Girl:

Whoso would be a man would be a nonconformist.

1963, Martin Luther King, quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance", quoted in "Strength to Love":


no-one

(chiefly British, Commonwealth and often Canada, Ireland) Alternative form of no one.


tha

In parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire where [aʊ] became [aː] and then shortened in an unstressed thou.

"[…] Stay thee where tha bist, sit down on thi property; what's the sense of wanderen over the barren sea and maybe happenen an accident?"

(Northern England, dialectal) Pronunciation spelling of thou.


dese

Representing a colloquial pronunciation of these.


hoo

hoo (third-person singular, feminine, nominative case, accusative and possessive her, possessive hers, reflexive herself)

en-pron

her (accusative possessive)
hers (possessive)
herself (reflexive)

From Middle English hoo, shoo (“she”) from Old English hēo (“she”). More at she.

(West Midlands and South West England) he, also a gender-neutral third person pronoun


whate'er

1858, Catherine Winkworth, Whate'er my god ordains is right, translation of Samuel Rodigast's Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan (1675)


me fellow

See Australian Kriol mibala, Bislama mifala, Tok Pisin mipela, Torres Strait Creole mipla.

me fella (alternative)
mefella (alternative)
me feller (alternative)
me fellers (alternative)

That’s for me fellow Aboriginal people.

1984, Australian Aboriginal Studies, no. 2

1987, A. McGrath Born in the Cattle
When we was a kid we couldn’t even talk properly, but the missus go tell me fellers ‘You gotta speak! Talk proper English you naughty girls—you’ll get a smack!’

1989, R. M. Baker, Land is Life
I been find all my boy long Borroloola ... me fella and Banjo find big mob girl too and boy.

1993, G. Koch, Kaytetye Country
This my wife here because mefella family, mefella bin gettin married.


myne

...leauyng with me then hys poore widow and a great sort of orphanes a good comfort in the hope of your good continuance, which I haue truly found to me and myne, and therfore do duely and dayly pray for you and yours...

1570, Margaret Ascham, Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster, foreword:


something's

Something's going wrong.


nobody's

That which belongs to nobody; the possessive case of nobody, used without a following noun.


somebody's

Possessive case of somebody. (This entry is a translation hub.)

něčí

belonging to somebody (possessive form of ''somebody'')


fae

head

fae (oblique fae, possessive adjective faer, possessive pronoun faers, reflexive faerself)

fae (oblique)
faer (adjective possessive)
faers (possessive pronoun without-noun)
faerself (reflexive)

Vandikas' parents, for example, haven't yet fully embraced the concept. Faer mother once asked faer to help her understand how fae would like her to talk about faer. Fae was encouraged, but faer mother's use of the pronouns didn't last – maybe, fae said, because it was such a foreign concept to the older generation, "so I just said to myself, she's my mom, I'll deal with it."

2016 September 22, Kim Zarzour, “Language Matters”, in Parkdale Villager, Parkdale, Toronto, ON, page 15:

Fae had decked faerself in a modest amount of cheap jewelry, faer makeup inexpertly applied.

2022, Novae Caelum, The Truthspoken Heir: The Stars and Green Magics - Season One, unnumbered page:

Soul describes and shares part of the "I AM" poem which fae wrote for faer college application.

2022, Sherry Paris, You Can Make a Difference!: A Creative Workbook and Journal for Young Activists, page 24:

(rare, nonstandard, neologism) A gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun, equivalent to singular they, and coordinate with gendered pronouns he and she.


His Royal Highness

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.

A title given to certain male members of a royal family, abbreviated HRH.


HRH

Her Royal Highness
Her Royal Highness#English


HM

HMs (plural)
H.M. (alternative)
H. M. (alternative)

(India, government) Initialism of Home Minister.


Her Royal Highness

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess Victoria.

A title given to certain female members of a royal family, abbreviated HRH.


Your Honour

فَخَامَتُكَ

Ваша f (Vaša) честь f (čestʹ) (Ваша честь) (declines as sing. but used with verb in 3rd person pl. majestatis)

(Commonwealth) A title used to address a judge or magistrate in court.


hee

"Good evening, Kristen," said I; "what are you telling that creates such fun?" "Hee, hee, hee!" screamed the youngsters, with great glee depicted in their faces; "Kristen has told us about the smith and the devil, and then about the lad who got him into the nut, and now he says he's going to tell us about Peter Sannum, whose horse the fairies stopped on the Asmyr hill."

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 251:

(onomatopoeia) An expression of laughter.

Hyde: (Leaps from desk. LADY BUGG runs behind the sofa. HYDE follows.) Hee, hee, hee! LADY BUGG: Help! Murder! Police!

1995, Tim Kelly, Dr. Jekyll.. Please Don't Hyde!, page 14:

Mona: Hee! Ha! Ho! Ha! The brain buffet is closed, buddy! Take that! And this!

1999, Mona the Vampire, "Attack of the Living Scarecrow" (season 1, episode 1a)

Listen! Fire Thunder sprang from the back of the dying pony to the back of a passing buffalo! Hee-hee! He landed facing the tail! He grabbed that tail and twisted it and made his buffalo go wherever he wanted to go. Hee-hee!

2003, Walter Wangerin, The Crying for a Vision, page 14:

(rare) Said accompanying a vigorous attack.


hee

He ended, and the Son gave signal high
To the bright Minister that watchd, hee blew
His Trumpet

1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

Obsolete spelling of he (sometimes emphatic).


dere

en-verb

dere (third-person singular simple present deres, present participle dering, simple past and past participle dered)

deres (present singular third-person)
dering (participle present)
dered (participle past)
dered (past)

From Middle English deren, derien, from Old English derian (“to damage, injure, hurt, harm”), from Proto-West Germanic *darjan (“to injure, harm”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerh₃- (“to leap, spring”). Cognate with Scots dere, deir (“to harm, hurt, injure”), Saterland Frisian dera (“to injure, damage”), West Frisian deare, derre (“to harm, injure”), Dutch deren (“to injure, damage, scathe”), Middle High German tern (“to injure”). Related to dart.

cog

(transitive, UK, archaic, dialectal) To hurt; harm; injure; wound.


dere

African-American Vernacular, New York City

Nonstandard spelling of there, reflecting any of a variety of accents with th-stopping.


Your Worship

A title used to address a magistrate, mayor, or clergyman


theirn

From Middle English theiren, compare hern. Displaced in standard speech by the -s form, theirs, which see for more.

“Nothin,” Dilsey said. “You tend to yo business en let de whitefolks tend to deir'n.”

1929, William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury:

(now UK, US, dialect, especially Appalachia, East Midlands) Theirs.


itt

(Internet slang) Initialism of in this thread or in this topic.


itt

1657, October 3, William Clarke, Letters from Flanders; reprinted in:

Itt hath indeed bin intended by the French army to lay siege to […] and in order thereunto a conquest hath bin made of the sconce Mardyk, which did nott indure siege above 2 dayes before itt yielded uppon discretion,¹ but since the taking thereof the resolution of beseiging Dunkirk beginneth to slacken, and I suppose will bee quitte layd aside for this […]

1899, William Clarke, edited by Charles Harding Firth, The Clarke Papers: Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, Secretary to the Council of the Army, 1647-1649, and to General Monck and the Commanders of the Army in Scotland, 1651-1660, Camden Society, page 120:


y'allselves

Thus, the list is Bill Varnedoe (NSS 3160) Field Trip Coordinator tailored both for the “do-it-y’allselves” cavers and for the convention field-trippers.

1958, National Speleological Society, NSS News, page 65:

“Oh, yeah, I’ll do that. And y’all take care of y’allselves. —And write me.”

1980, Samuel Wheat, Melting Pot: A Novel, page 137:

I know both of y’all better than y’all know y’allselves.

1996: James Earl Hardy, 2 ⁿᵈ Time Around, p104

Y’all worms call y’allselves soldiers? Y’all still wet behind the ears from being coddled by your mamas!

2005, J. C. Arlington, A Red Horse Rode Out, page 17:


youseselves

...passin’ youseselves as honest hobos when youse airn’t [sic] nothin’ but workin’ men!

1927, St John G. Ervine, The Wayward Man:

(dialectal, rare) Yourselves, reflexive case of youse.


Him

☐ Try a conversational journaling approach, where you talk with God about what you are learning and write what you 'hear' Him saying to you (see Appendix 1 for examples)

2015, Helen Calder, “Consider a Fresh Approach to Bible Study”, in Deeper: 6 Steps to Greater Intimacy with God and His Word, David McCracken Ministries, →ISBN, page 41:

Honorific alternative letter-case form of him, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.


not a one

Why must you lie to me? How many BERRIES do you have? Not a one!

2004: Old man in Cerulean City, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen

Looking through my old painting books, there are no women in them. Not a one.

2005, JoAnn Bortles, How To Custom Paint Your Motorcycle:

- You can't find any legs on a snake, Stephen.
- No, not a one.


mee

From Middle English mee, variant of me, from Old English mē (“me”). See further at me.

Macbeth: Accursed be that tongue that tels mee so; / For it hath Cow'd my better part of man: […]

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act VII, scene vii]:

Behold mee then, mee for him, life for life / I offer, on mee let thine anger fall; / Account mee man; […]

1667, John Milton, “Book LXIX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 236-238:


somesuch

somesuch excuse.

1816, The Idler, Number 86, Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy, The Works of Samuel Johnson, 1816 ed.
the elevation of my apartments furnished a subject for conversation, which, without somesuch help, we should have been in danger of wanting.


somesuch

I never did have a full name down in my daybook for him, just Sam or Joe or somesuch, I can't recollect that now.


a few

She loves to sing karaoke, but there are a few songs that she refuses to cover.

After a dismal few months my life at long last changed for the better.

"I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal.[…]"

1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC:

A small number of (a set of countable items); more than one but not very many; especially, more than two but not very many (explained in usage note at several).


a few

Regrets, I've had a few, but then again too few to mention.

Did everyone go home? ―No, a few (of them) are still chatting.


my ass

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-my ass.wav

She'll use my money to buy a new car, my ass!

You're his brother, my ass! You look nothing alike.

And then I found out. "Single" he told me? Single, my ass! Not only was he married, oh, no, he had six wives!

1975, “Cell Block Tango”, in Fred Ebb (lyrics), John Kander (music), Chicago:

(slang, sometimes vulgar) Indicates disapproval, disagreement, or disbelief, often with a tone of disregard, disdain, or disgust, referring to the buttocks.


anywho

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-anywho.wav

You know—well, I don't know if you do know—but anywho even if you don't I don't reckon it's like it's top-secret.

2006, Scott Philip Stewart, The Calling of Jujubee Forthright:


tother

tothers (plural)
toder (alternative)
t'other (alternative)

From Middle English þe toþer, from the incorrect division of thet other (“the/that other”). Compare Scots tither; English tone. More at that, other.


your mother

In order to keep the teacher from knowing what we were doing, we just cleared our throats and that meant “your mother" (yo momma) .

1991, Evelyn Baker Dandy, Black Communications: Breaking Down the Barriers, page 87:


thysen

thi sen (alternative)
thissen (alternative)
thassen (alternative)
thee sen (alternative)

Aw'm nut doin it. Do it thisen!


thee sen

thi sen (alternative)
thissen (alternative)
thassen (alternative)
thysen (alternative)

Aw'm not doin it, do it thisen!


the one

ten jedyny

Jesus Christ is the One, the savior.

He (Neo) is the One.

They, like me, believe him (Anakin Skywalker) to be The One.

(colloquial) A particularly special or compatible person or thing.

(colloquial) A particular person destined to save the universe or world; the chosen one.

الْمُخْتَار

person destined to save the universe or world, also called the Chosen One


hawt

1896, George Wharton Edwards, Break O’ Day, Ayer Publishing (1969), →ISBN, page 46,
“[…] Oh, ’t is, eh? Well, I waant to know — kind o’ hawt in here, ain’t it? Phew!” Again the orange silk handkerchief waved clouds of suffocating musk.

2005, Lauren Mechling and Laura Moser, The Rise and Fall of a 10th-Grade Social Climber, Graphia Books, →ISBN, pages 86–87,
“Mistah,” I drawled, switching on the Texan twang I perfected not in Houston but as a child in New York watching Dallas reruns with my dad. “Ah’m tahrubly sawhruh, but won’t ya tell us what on er-yuhth we’re a-doin’ wrong?” ¶ […] “We were just having a nice cool refray-yush-munt, Officer—isn’t it so hawt?”

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling#English

Pronunciation spelling or leetspeak of hot (any sense).


hawt

c'''1560, "Proude Wyues Pater noster", in William Carew Hazlitt (ed.), Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, J.R. Smith (1866), pages 157–158,
Amen—sayd the other, I pray god it be so, / For ye haue good ynoughe, this I do knowe well, / Of good marchaundise, so mote I the, / As any is here in this countre to sell, / For his degre; but he is a frayde / That he sholde passe his state or loke to hawt, / Than behynde your backes it shulde be sayde, / Yf he fare amyss, that it were all your fawt.

a'''1900, Finley Peter Dunne, "High Finance", in Mr. Dooley’s Philosophy, R. H. Russell (1902), page 160,
[…] ‘Well,’ says I, ‘Cassidy,’ I says, ‘ye’ve been up again th’ pa-apers call hawt finance,’ I says. ‘What th’ divvle’s that?’ says he. ‘Well,’ says I, ‘it ain’t burglary, an’ it ain’t obtaining money be false pretinses, an’ it ain’t manslaughter,’ I says. ‘It’s what ye might call a judicious seliction fr’m th’ best features iv thim ar-rts,’ I says. […]

2002, Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 60,
On it was written, in shaky handwriting: ¶ After thys perfromans, Why Notte Visit / Harga’s Hous of Ribs, / For the Best inne Hawt Cuisyne ¶ “What's hawt cuisyne?” said Victor.

High; in later use, eye dialect spelling of haut or haute.


hawt

1880, George Washington Cable, The Grandissimes, quoted in William Dean Howells, Heroines of Fiction, Harper and Brothers (1903), page 242,
She looked up suddenly and took a quick breath, as if to resume, but her eyes fell before his, and she said, in a tone of half-soliloquy: ‘I ’ave so much troub’ wit dad hawt.’ She lifted one little hand feebly to the cardiac region, and sighed softly, with a dying languor.

1896, Paul Laurence Dunbar, "When Malindy Sings", in Joan R. Sherman, African-American Poetry: An Anthology, 1773–1927, Courier Dover Publications (1997), →ISBN, pages 64–65,
[…] / But fu’ real melojous music, / Dat jes’ strikes yo’ hawt and clings, / Jes’ you stan’ an’ listen wif me, / When Malindy sings.

2004, Oliver T. Beard, Bristling with Thorns, Kessinger Publishing, →ISBN, page 163,
“Deah mistus, cry way down in you hawt, but you’ll git inter mistrouble sho’ if dey sees teahs for de po’ Yanks. Dat yo’ will, honey.”


hawt

c'''1500, anonymous, "Robin Hood and the Potter", in Francis James Child, English and Scottish Ballads, Sampson Low (1861), page 29,
“Her het ys merey to be,” seyde Roben, / “For a man that had hawt to spende; / Be mey horne we schall awet / Yeff Roben Hode be ner hande.”

(obsolete) Anything. (Alternative form of aught)


the hell

A: I can run faster than a horse.
B: The hell you can!

'You stay here, sir,' O'Bannion instructed.
'The hell I will,' Feeney said.

(mildly vulgar) Used to indicate emphatic rejection of an assertion or request.

diable

indication of emphatic rejection of an assertion

What the hell was that?

D'Allesandro was particularly adept at that kind of flash-forward-then-backward-all-the-hell-over-the-place kind of narrative and like a tourist following a well-seasoned guide, you never lose track of the line.

1989 December 17, Christopher Wittke, “On The Edge In The '80s”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 23, page 11:

“Whoever the hell is running the place now has made a terrible mess of it,” he said... “Not in the sense that it looks different, or that it isn't pretty much permanently full. It's just that the food as gone utterly down the khazi.”

2009 February 19, Gareth Lewis, Southern Daily Echo:

relative pronoun
relative pronoun#English

(mildly vulgar) Expletive used for emphasis, typically after an interrogative term or relative pronoun.

zur Hölle

expletive used for emphasis after an interrogative term


the hell

“She said she had a date later!”
“The hell!” exclaimed Crane.

2013, Jonathan Latimer, The Lady in the Morgue, →ISBN:

(mildly vulgar) Ellipsis of what the hell, an exclamation indicating surprise or dismay.


the hell

The hell is that?

The hell am I supposed to do with half a kid?

2023, James P. Sandoval, “Solomon's Solution”, in But a Jape (webcomic):

Wilson: He's right. They endorse Royce, fine, the hell else they gonna do?

2006 October 1, Dennis Lehane, “Refugees” (00:32:06), in The Wire, season 4, episode 4:

I’ll tell you a story. The hell's his name? Might be Herbert… Hitler came on me full force. And that was explosive.

2024 May 16, very tall bart, [YTP] State of the Union, spoken by Jordan Peterson (Jordan Peterson):

(mildly vulgar, slang, interrogative) Ellipsis of what the hell (“what”).


every man Jack

When the captain offered a free round of grog to the crew, every man Jack of them lined up for a cupful.

(idiomatic) All the members of a group with no exceptions.


-cha

From an unstressed you (/jə/) after a word ending in /t/; the unstressed sequence /tj/ coalesces into /tʃ/ ⟨ch⟩ in many accents.

Baz: 'BAD NEWS, BUD. I NEVER WANTED TO FIGHTCHA, BUT IF WE WANT OUT, WE GOTTA SCRAP! YOU 'N ME, MANO A MANO.'

2019 December 10, Yacht Club Games, "Story" (Reize), in Shovel Knight Showdown (version 4.1), Nintendo Switch

(informal, used only after a /t/ sound) Alternative form of ya (“you”).


noone

From no + one. Compare Middle English noone, noon, noan (“noone”). More at none.


yrs

(international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Yarsun.


y'allself

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-y'allself.wav

Just what y’all call y’allself doing? That’s what I want to know. So tell me that. Just tell me that. Don’t say a word. Don’t you say one word. Don’t you say a goddamn mumbling word to me. Neither one of you.

1985, Joseph F. Trimmer, C. Wade Jennings, Fictions, page 912:

HARRY WASHINGTON† shrieks out of an internal orgy of psychic pain: “Niggers‼ Keep my family’s name outcha mouf! Ya freaks! Ya filth! Ya racist garbage! All my family believe in God! Keep your twisted Satanic filth to y’allself! Keep my family’s name outch’all nasty mouf!”

2001: Mumia Abu-Jamal, All Things Censored, CH. IV: “On Tilt” by State Design, p38

“E got kids! Damn, time flies. Cept when you on lockdown. Time go by slower’n a muthafuckah then. That’s nice. I mean it. That’s real nice. It does a niggah proud seein’ you boys doin’ good for y’allself. Doin’ y’all thing and shit. I member when y’all was this high. Now look at y’all, you taller’n me, muthafuckah. I’ll still fuck you up, though. Believe that. I’m just fuckin’ with you. But I’m sayin’, y’all runnin’ shit. E got his family; you got your girlie and shit. She got you all whipped — bumpin’ into niggahs and shit. I’m just fuckin’ with you, man. You got some kids?”

2007, G. Andi Rhos, And It Goes Like This…, page 56:


yourn

From Middle English youren. Displaced in standard speech by the -s form, yours. See also ourn, hern. Cognate with West Flemish joen (“yourn”).

When I was a hired-out shepherd in a solitary hut, not seeing no faces but faces of sheep till I half forgot wot men's and women's faces wos like, I see yourn.

1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XX, in Great Expectations […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 341:

Your room's in there, back of the office, an' you'll find some clothes there that the last man forgot to take with him. You ken have 'em, an' from the looks o' yourn you need 'em.

1914 October – 1916 July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Mucker, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published 31 October 1921, →OCLC:

(obsolete outside British and US dialects, especially Appalachia) Yours.


hisn

From Middle English hisen, ultimately corresponding to an alteration of his after mine, thine.

I will not show him this letter of yours, though you seem to desire it, lest it should provoke him to be too severe a schoolmaster, when you are his'n.

1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXXII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC:

An' every feller felt ez though all Mexico wuz hisn.

1848, James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers:

But in the absolute whosen is often substituted, as in "if it ain't hisn, then whosen is it?" The imitation is obvious.

[1921 [1919], H. L. Mencken, The American Language, 2nd edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 297:

(now dialectal, British and US, especially Appalachia) His.


ourn

From Middle English ourn, ouren, from Old English ūrne and similar forms. Compare mine, thine; also compare and see hern. Displaced in standard speech by the -s form, ours, which see for more.

“Supposin',” continued Ward, “that we let two o' your men an' two o' ourn under Mr. Divine, shin up them cliffs back o' the cove an' search fer water an' a site fer camp—the rest o' us'll have our hands full with the salvage.”

(obsolete outside British and US dialects, especially Appalachia) Ours.


shorty

shorties (plural)
shortie (alternative)
shawty (alternative)

I guarantee, shorty, it's real, baby, stick it out / [...] / You talk a good one, shorty, now you're makin' me sweat

1996, “Doin' It”, in Mr. Smith, performed by LL Cool J:

But seeing my boy on the cover of your magazine with three fine shorties made me think twice about the assumptions I've made.

“Yo, man,” Vincent looked up at Sharif. “How is it that you always have the fine shorties hanging out at your crib?”

2006, Karen E. Quinones Miller, Uptown Dreams, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 38:

Shawty I can see that you got so much energy, / The way you twirling up them hips round and round

2008, “Just Dance”, in The Fame, performed by Lady Gaga ft. Colby O'Donis:

"It wasn't that fine ass shorty I saw in the car earlier?" Travis inquired.

2015, Ashon Thadon, Unpunished: some deeds go that way, BookRix, →ISBN:

(slang, chiefly African-American Vernacular) An attractive young female, especially one who is sexually available.


whosever

Whosever sunglasses these are, they will have to pick them up tomorrow.

"And she is not wholesome, whosever word it was. She was there, hanging about him when he was so bad, before the worst came."

1866, Mark Twain, The Galaxy, W.C and F.P. Church, page 584:

(possessive) Of whomever; belonging or related to whichever person or persons; whoever's.


whosever

Whosever it is, it will be seized.

(possessive) That of whomever; that which belongs or is related to whatever person or persons; whoever's.


your Honor

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-your Honor.wav

(chiefly Philippines, formal) you (a form of address for a representative or senator in the Philippine Congress during hearings and inquiries, and for canvassers during the canvass of electoral results).


summing

In this manner each page [of accounts] is summed up, and […] the amount of the last page of all, as comprehending all the particular summings of the preceding pages, is to be considered as the total amount of the whole account.

1815, John Dougall, The Young Man's Best Companion and Guide to Useful Knowledge:


your grace

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-your grace.wav

(formal, obsolete) you (as a polite form of address to social superiors)


so much

"So much", he replied, sprinkling a small pile of the powder on the table.


summat

Dialectal variant of somewhat attested from the 18th century. Joseph Wright suggested that it might be a contraction of "some that" in A Grammar of the Dialect of Windhill (page 78).

summit (alternative)
sommat (alternative)
sommit (alternative)
sumat (alternative obsolete)
summet (alternative obsolete)
zumat (alternative obsolete)
zummat (alternative obsolete)
zummet (alternative obsolete)
zummut (alternative obsolete)
summut (alternative)
zum'ot (alternative)
summot (alternative)
sumet (alternative obsolete)

...every gentleman tips us summat, we looks for it as natural as possible.

1809, Theodore Hook, “Killing No Murder”, in The Sporting Magazine, volume 34, number 202, page 185:

They require the atmosphere of a cigar and the amalgam of a sum'mat comfortable.

1825 October 12, Walter Scott, Letters (published 1935), IX.245

A man must learn summat beside Gospel to make them things.

1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter I, in Adam Bede […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first, page 10:

He were a-going to gie I summat for’n, but like enough it’ll be worth more to a gent like yourself.

1929, John Cowper Powys, Wolf Solent, page 129:

Does he think I’ve been soaping up to the Governor or summat?

1947, Thomas Armstrong, King Cotton, page 53:

Got summat fer yeh here – I mighta sat on it at some point, but it’ll taste all right.

1997 June 26, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], chapter IV, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harry Potter; 1), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

Why go all the way to find summat that ain’t there?

Do you ever get that fear that you can't shift the type / That sticks around like summat in your teeth?

2013, Alex Turner, “Do I Wanna Know?”, in Jamie Cook, Nick O'Malley, Matt Helders (music), AM, track 1:

(England, especially Lancashire, Yorkshire, informal) Something.


summat

It's summat-like to see such a man as that i' the desk of a Sunday!

1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter VIII, in Adam Bede […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first, page 172:

(England, especially Lancashire, Yorkshire, informal) Something (“to a degree”); somewhat.


sumat

‛Salem aleicum,’ says she; which means, How do you do, or sumat hequivalent to it.

1841, Charles Selby, Maximums & Speciments of William Muggins, Natural Philosopher and Citizen of the World, 313 (1859 ed.)

(Yorkshire, dialectal, obsolete) Alternative form of summat.


thors

head

thors (possessive pronoun, possessive determiner thor)


meself

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-meself.wav

‘True, I haven’t introduced meself.’

(slang or dialectal, UK, Ireland, Australia) Alternative form of myself.


yerself

'You daft great gowk, puttin' yerself in the way of harm after all this time out of a war.'

2016, Kerry Greenwood, Murder and Mendelssohn, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 303:

(nonstandard or dialectal) Alternative form of yourself.


yerselves

(nonstandard or dialectal) Alternative form of yourselves.


what have you

what-have-you (alternative)
whathaveyou (alternative)

He also had a room strewn with the toys of the trade and what-have-you: ropes and ironmongery, buoyancy aid and bagpipes, fetid socks and half-eaten haggises, dumbbells and ski-instructor sweaters.

1997, Pete McDonald, Climbing Lessons: Inside Outdoor Education, page 40:

So you might not have a million-seller every time, 'cause you're not movin' around and what have you, but at least you'll have a good track record.

2000, Jas Obrecht, Rollin' and Tumblin': The Postwar Blues Guitarists, page 387:

“Like I said on the televisual apparatus, every homeless person has a story to tell,” said Mr. Stink. “That’s mine. I am sorry it didn’t involve spies or pirates or what have you. Real life isn’t like that, I’m afraid. And I didn’t mean to upset you.”

2009 October 29, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Mr Stink, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

(colloquial) Any of several additional, unmentioned things


hisself

From Middle English his-self, his self, his-selfe, his-selven, his selfen; equivalent to his + -self.

Among those who seemed disposed to join in this opinion was the Jehu of the Warwickshire coach, who expressed his conviction to our hero, that "he wos a young gent as had much himproved hisself since he tooled him up to the 'Varsity with his guvnor."

1853, Cuthbert Bede [pseudonym; Edward Bradley], “Mr. Verdant Green terminates his existence as an Oxford Freshman”, in The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, London: Nathaniel Cooke, […], →OCLC, page 116:

Then when he had finally got through he sat down and luk'd as tho' he hisself would die of grief if they brought in a verdict of guilty.

1897, The Cosmopolitan, volume 22, page 564:

I sure hope he don't get hisself hurt one of these days, running his mouth thataway.

1953, James Baldwin, “The Seventh Day”, in Go Tell It on the Mountain (Penguin Classics), London: Penguin Books, published 2001, →ISBN:

‘Charles ain't exactly got his feet on the ground. Last week he swore to me that he was spending his nights in New Orleans manwhoring hisself.[…]’

2020, Eoin Colfer, Highfire, Hachette, →ISBN:

(now chiefly dialectal or informal) Himself.


whatevs

Clipping of whatever + -s (hypocoristic suffix).

watevs (alternative)
whateves (alternative)
whatevz (alternative)

Vin and I decided to chat it up—just for whatevs—with a couple of colored-up kids waiting to party.

2003, Adam Cole, Crashing America, page 52:


next to nothing

I got it for next to nothing in the January sales.

He pretends to be knowledgeable, but actually he knows next to nothing.


a bit

That hat seems a bit small for him.

It rained a bit last night.


a bit

Q: How much trouble did you stir up last night? A: Just a bit.

(especially UK, meiosis) A large amount.


yens

(colloquial, chiefly Appalachia, also western Pennsylvania and Midwestern US) You, you all; used in referring to a group that includes one's audience.


whatso

From Middle English whatso, from Old English hwæt swā; equivalent to what + so.


ya'll

Contraction of ya will. By surface analysis, ya (“you”) + 'll.

Don't go in, ya'll only make thins worse.

1857, Barry Alan Grael, work based on Dion Boucicault's play, The Streets of New York http://books.google.com/books?id=dVr8FZH65foC, page 70

Yis, yis; ya'll be forced, or else ya'll tak t' luck awaäy wi' ya, an' that wad niver deä.

1886, Donald MacLeod, editor, Good Words for 1886, page 201:

Bill's spilin' for a fight, / An' one o' these black God-forgotten days / He'll let tha devil tap 'im on tha shoulder, / An' then ya'll see what happens.

1921, Robert Norwood, Bill Boram, page 52:

Ya'll like that. Ya'll come out smellin like a rose, looking like one, too.

1985, V.C. Andrews, Heaven, →ISBN, page 243:

Ya'll only ever be Xavier Cassidy's work horse. He won't treat ya right.

2002, Marina Carr, By the Bog of Cats, page 24:

But then ya'll only have two oxen if ya do that, Mrs. Burt.

2006, J. R. Reynolds, Sustenance of Courage, page 281:


this one

Which one do you want?

This one!

A specified object, thing or person (especially one nearby or known). (This entry is a translation hub.)

ez (t)

“-t” added if it’s the object of the verb, as in “I want this one”