neither

Alteration (after either) of nauther, from Middle English nawther, noþer, naðer (whence also Modern nor), from Old English nāwþer, contraction of nāhwæþer, corresponding to no + whether. Compare Latin neuter (“neither”). By surface analysis, not + either.

I’ve tried on both shirts, but neither fits properly.


FA

(euphemistic) Initialism of Fanny Adams.


'e

A representation of the pronunciation of he by a speaker who does not use the voiceless glottal fricative or transition ([h]).

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling


'a

(archaic) Alternative form of a (“he, she, they”)


a lot

I have a lot of things to say.

A lot depends on whether your parents agree.


you-uns

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

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


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'ns

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


shoo

From Middle English scho, sheo, scheo, sȝheo, from Old English hēo (“she”). More at she.

Hearken, hearken, shoo’s cursing on em!” muttered Joseph, towards whom I had been steering.

1847, Emily Brontë, chapter II, in Wuthering Heights, New York: Harper Brothers, published 1855, →OCLC, page 15:


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.


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

Is it a small benefit, that I am placed there […] where I see no drunken comessations, no rebellious routs, no violent oppressions, no obscene rejoicings, nor ought else that might either vex or affright my soul?

1658, Joseph Hall, The Devout Soul, Or, Rules of Heavenly Devotion Also the Free Prisoner, Or, the Comfort of Restraint:


yah

"Hey, Sis, do yah want a Hertz Donut?" one of them sweetly said as the other one held out a donut bag. She reached for it. Her step-sister snatched the bag away and socked her hard in the arm instead.

2006, Carmen Portnoy, The Money Pie: A Recipe for Women Investors, page 6:


whomever

From Middle English whomever; equivalent to whom + ever.

The letter is addressed to whomever it may concern.

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).


whoever

head

whoever (nominative case, objective whomever, possessive whosever)

whomever (objective)
whosever (possessive)

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

Whoever thought up that stupid idea?

(interrogative) Who ever: an emphatic form of who.

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).

Whoever stole the painting, the police will catch the thief in no time.

Regardless of the person or persons that.

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

He is the tallest man whoever lived. (incorrect usage)

When the gays can claim the toughest bastard whoever pulled on a football boot as one of their own, ...

2014 July 13, Peter FitzSimons, “Ian Thorpe acknowledges he's gay, let's hope he's now happy as well”, in Sydney Morning Herald:

Misspelling of who ever other than in interrogative use.


whichever

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

These chocolates all look delicious. Whichever shall I choose?

(interrogative) Which ever; emphatic form of 'which'.

Whichever you pick, be content with it.

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

I have a few books; please borrow whichever interest you.

They have lots of shirts, but I'll buy whichever is cheapest.

Whichever of you gets here first will get the prize.

Any or either one(s) that; the one(s) that.

I don't mind which you have. Take whichever.

I'll buy the red shirt or the blue shirt, whichever is cheaper.

According to or depending upon which one(s).


whosoever

whosoever (objective whomsoever, possessive whosesoever)

whomsoever (objective)
whosesoever (possessive)

/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 (lyrics and music), “Thriller”, performed by Michael Jackson:

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


'un

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 Cornwall) One (a person).


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:


somewhat

Proceeding to the midst he stil did stand,
 As if in minde he somewhat had to say […]

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

a. 1716, Robert Trail, sermon on the Lord's Prayer
But this text and theme I am upon, relates to somewhat far higher and greater, than all the beholdings of his glory that ever any saint on earth received.

Mr Jones had somewhat about him, which, though I think writers are not thoroughly agreed in its name, doth certainly inhabit some human breasts […]

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

Not seldom in this life, when, on the right side, fortune's favourites sail close by us, we, though all adroop before, catch somewhat of the rushing breeze, and joyfully feel our bagging sails fill out.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:


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):

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


hella

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

We paid hella for that Chinese cuisine.

(slang, chiefly Northern California) A lot; very much.


whomsoever

whomsoever (objective case of whosoever)

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 (lyrics and music), “Fell on Black Days”:

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


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:


someone else

einhver önnur (einhvað annað n/eitthvert annað n)


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:


'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

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


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


Himself

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


He

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.


His

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.


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

Alternative letter-case form of me often used when speaking as God or another important figure who is understood from context.


Oi

(south west England) Pronunciation spelling of I.


My

Alternative letter-case form of my often used when speaking as God or another important figure who is understood from context.


thor

thor (possessive determiner, possessive pronoun thors)


nb

i hate when i text in the gc and nb replys^([sic])

2023 May 10, @mkarrdashh, Twitter, archived from the original on 2023-11-03:

everybody say they hiring but nb hiringggg fr 🙄

2023 June 29, @imkaay, Twitter, archived from the original on 2023-11-03:

Do yo own thing and don't gaf about what nb else say

2023 August 31, u/Regular_Fisherman_51, “first day of high school coming up i need some advice quick”, in Reddit, r/BruceDropEmOff, archived from the original on 2023-11-03:

Public school was hell bc nb wanted to be my friend or associate with me due to me being trans.

2023 October 5, u/Colors100, “Just need someone to talk to”, in Reddit, r/SuicideWatch, archived from the original on 2023-11-03:

(Internet slang, text messaging) Abbreviation of nobody.


xe

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

en-pron

xem (oblique)
xyrself (reflexive)
xyr (possessive)

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

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.


mickle

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

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.


sth

ngt

abbreviation of something in explanation


I

head

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”), 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).

[…]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.
Audio: (file)

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

I know I have a pen, though…
Audio (US): (file)

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.

Mom drove my sister and I to school.

Sweet Baſſanio, My ſhips haue all miſcarried, my Creditors grow cruell, my eſtate is very low: my bond to the Iew is forfet, and ſince in paying it, it is impoſſible I ſhould liue, all debts are cleered betweene you and I if I might but ſee you at my death.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

1980, Bob Marley, Redemption Song
Old pirates, yes, they rob I
Sold I to the merchant ships
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.

Step inside, see the Devil in I
You'll realize I'm not your Devil anymore

2014, “The Devil in I”, in .5: The Gray Chapter, performed by Slipknot:

(nonstandard) The speaker or writer, referred to as the grammatical object, of a sentence.


ch

Aphetic form of ich, utch, ultimately from Old English iċ (“I”). Compare Dutch 'k, an aphetic variant of ik (“I”). More at ich, I.

(obsolete, dialectal) Alternative form of I


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.


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.


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


sich

Zaporizhian Sich
Zaporozhian Cossacks
sich rada


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”).


mun

tha wut spudlee out the Yemors, and screedle over mun

1746, Exmoor Courtship, published 1879, page 50:

The English Dialect Dictionary
w:The English Dialect Dictionary

(UK, dialect, Devon, Somerset, obsolete) them


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:


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”.

Whereas we are informed that the small pox prevails at New York, Connecticut, &c, the preventing of which’s coming into this place is of the utmost consequence, all persons are hereby notified that orders are given by us for all vessells coming into this port to hoist a jack at the main topmast head, […]

1899, Minisink Valley Historical Society, Collections, Connecticut Historical Society, page 86

The yield is comparable to the best corporate securities, each of which’s principal is relatively safe.

1992, Jack Rabin, Handbook of Public Budgeting, CRC Press, page 476:

The discovery of the Indianapolis Times was serendipitous since his two favorite teams were the Indiana Hoosiers and the Indianapolis Colts, the latter of which’s move from Baltimore prompted Poe’s lugubrious novel The Fall of the House of Irsay.

2004, Mark Axelrod, Borges' Travel, Hemingway's Garage: Secret Histories, page 74:

Of or pertaining to [some noun phrase ending with] which.


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.

Whatsoever you seek, you will find.

Whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 31:16:

c. 1613–1621, Francis Bacon, The judicial charge upon the commission of Oyer and Terminer held for the verge of the Court
[…] I must require you to use diligence in presenting especially those purloinings and imbezlements, which are of plate, vessel, or whatsoever within the King's house.


suchlike

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

That is, we use reading not just as a means to educate ourselves, or to “explore other worlds” and suchlike, but to literally keep our distance from others.


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

She's not as smart as all that.

The exact amount, quantity, or level referred to.


quisquis

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


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

(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


idem

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


jack shit

I [won't/will] do jack shit for you if you get lost.

Oh, you're in charge? Well, I got some bad news for you Dwayne, from up here it doesn't look like you're in charge of jack shit.

1988, Jeb Stuart, Steven E. de Souza, Die Hard, spoken by John McClane (Bruce Willis):

(vulgar) Nothing, (lack of) anything (i.e. lack of anything of value).

kurca m (partial direct object in genitive, vulgar)

ett ...[] smack n (colloquial) - with all translations inte (“not”) is needed

otherwise only ett skit is a swear word by itself.


naff all

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


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.


ve

Ve vill go to de Sheafen Farm, and ve vill stay at de Sheafen Farm, is it not?

1872, Charles Camden, “The Travelling Menagerie”, in George Mac Donald, editor, Good Words for the Young, London: Strahan & Co., […], chapter V (A Tiger Hunt in England), page 208, column 1:

But ve have grounds larger even than these – though in vinter, ve have very little daylight, so ve are not enjoying them.

2000 July 8, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], “The Yule Ball”, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter; 4), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 363:

“My calculations predict another day or so. Ve vill be docking in Liverpool.”

2011, Roberta C. M. DeCaprio, chapter 9, in A Rose in Amber, Wild Rose Press, →ISBN:

In Johnny Canuck, a Nazi guard says: “Look, gentlemen of der turd reich. Ve haf captured Johnny Canuck and all his friends.”

2016, Sara Buttsworth, Maartje Abbenhuis, War, Myths, and Fairy Tales - Page 103:


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:


'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:


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


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)


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.


cha

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

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 (lyrics and music), “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:


missen

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


(s)he

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


s/he

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


noting

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


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.


sis

sis (third-person singular, feminine, nominative case)

en-pron

sis is living my delusions, happy for her

2023 February 2, ㅊ (@jaja_girly), Twitter:

The internalized colorism that has inflicted Will is just… Referring to gorgeous Veronica as “Black bald dark-skin woman.” How she didn’t snatch him from his Mama’s highchair I do not know.. Sis dodged all the bullets.. #loveisblindbrazil

“Sue Me” sis snapped

2022 September 29, Kahlen Barry (@KahlenBarry), Twitter:

sis really said fuck the police go off

2023 January 3, sésé/gee☆♱ (@d0llydeathw1sh), Twitter:

Call me when ur 3 year old daughter knows SZA lyrics, girl said “you still playin the pick me, I’m still playin the victim” we don’t care if it’s backwards sis learned that all on her own 🥹

2023 January 3, amanda 🍒(@ amc0124), Twitter:

(chiefly African-American Vernacular, slang) she


what's-his-name

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:


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.


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:


'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

head

whoso (objective whomso, possessive whoseso)

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


dese

Representing a colloquial pronunciation of these.


yee

(archaic and Geordie) you (the people being addressed); Alternative spelling of ye

Speak yee who best can tell, ye sons of light,
Angels, for yee behold him, and with songs
And choral symphonies, Day without Night,
Circle his Throne, rejoycing, yee in Heav'n,
On Earth joyn all yee Creatures to extoll.

1667, John Milton, “Book V”, 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:


hoo

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

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

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

'Aye, aye,' said the father, impatiently, 'hoo'll come. Hoo's a bit set up now, because hoo thinks I might ha' spoken more civilly; but hoo'll think better on it, and come. I can read her proud bonny face like a book.

1854, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, North and South, Chapter VIII:

(South Lancashire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire) she

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


tha

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

(Northern England, dialectal) Pronunciation spelling of thou.


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.

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.


somebody's

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


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:


nobody's

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


fae

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.


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.


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.


Your Honour

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

فَخَامَتُكَ

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

(Canada) A title used to address a provincial lieutenant-governor.


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

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

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:


youseselves

Coordinate term: youseself

...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.


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:


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

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

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

my ass (personal pronoun; the first person, singular)

en-pron

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

My boss screwed up again, and of course it's my ass that has to deal with it.

Now I gotta drag my ass to work. He says it's fine, but get real—you know it'd be *my* ass on the hook, if anything happened.

(slang, vulgar) I; me; myself; oneself in the third person.


anywho

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


tother

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

Well, Guv'nor, he stood up by-and-by, and taking the bundles of rags, the big uns in one hand, tother ones in tother, he toddled out of the room; […]

‘Me an th’ Lad ull help you[…] for all he’s not just like the tothers,’ here she nodded

1882, Caroline Hallet, “Out of the World”, in The Monthly Packet, page 522:

(now dialectal) Other. Most often used after the.


your mother

For quotations using this term, see Citations:your mother.

(Polari) You; He, she (referring to someone who previously used your mother to refer to herself or himself)


thee sen

Aw'm not doin it, do it thisen!


thysen

Aw'm nut doin it. Do it thisen!


the one

Here is the one I want to buy.

In formal contexts, we can use 'that' and 'those' as substitutes meaning ‘the one(s)’.


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

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

Abbreviation of yours (when signing a letter)


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”).

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.


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.


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.


shorty

head

shorty (third-person singular, feminine, nominative or objective case)

en-pron

Bell: Savino didn't tip you off to that bitch?
Wee-Bey: Pshh, wasn't no time for that. He get up out the car, we see him go up the block like we said, right? Pshh, after that, he outa sight, we bring it home like we planned, baby.
Bell: Well, shorty was a cop.

2002 August 18, David Simon, Ed Burns, “The Hunt” (15:40 from the start), in The Wire, season 1, episode 11, spoken by Stringer Bell (Idris Elba), spoken by Wee-Bey Brice (Hassan Johnson):

Shorty really killed this 😭

2023 February 5, Za Morant (@APotOfGold_), Twitter:

I asked shorty for her name and she said “earn it”

2023 February 1, Hoodville (@Hoodville_), Twitter:

Shorty said

2023 February 5, The Sound Hashira (@chillixci), Twitter:

shorty concussed and she said not my problem 😭

2023 February 1, Chronic E (@therealchronice), Twitter:

Me tryna show shorty I’m just as useful as that toy

2023 January 29, @Squid_wurdz on IG (@squid_wurdz), Twitter:

(African-American Vernacular, slang) she or her, especially of a younger woman


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

Touching the firſt, I refer my ſelf to your Honors favourable Opinion, and the Character which my Lord S. and others ſhall give of me: […]

1626 September 18 (Gregorian calendar), James Howell, “XXV. To the Right Honourable the Lord Conway, Principal Secretary of State to His Majesty, at Hampton Court.”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume I, London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], published 1655, →OCLC, section IV, page 177:

The numbers of the French have been greatly magnified, as your Honor may see by a copy of the enclosed journal of a person, whom I sent out to gain intelligence.

1847, George Washington, The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, page 26:

(formal, obsolete, addressing someone of higher rank or status than oneself) you

(US, formal, addressing a judge or magistrate) you

(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

(colloquial) Alternative form of something


your grace

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

(formal) A title of respect used when addressing a duke or duchess or other high noble of equivalent rank.

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


so much

How could you eat so much?

There is only so much you can remember.

We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time.

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

A particular amount, often a large or excessive amount.

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


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


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).

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

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


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


yerselves

(nonstandard or dialectal) Alternative form of yourselves


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


what have you

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).

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:


iz

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


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

Q: Care for some cake? A: Argh, you've twisted my arm — I'll have just a bit, thank you.

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.

So she went out to fetch her needful from the Bazar and Alaeddin retired to his chamber and taking the Lamp rubbed it, when forthright appeared to him its Slave and said, "Ask, O my lord, whatso thou wantest."

1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume (please specify the volume), [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC:

Whatso looks lovelily / Is but the rainbow on life's weeping rain. / Why have we longings of immortal pain, / And all we long for mortal?

1889, Francis Thompson, “Ode to the Setting Sun”, in The Works of Francis Thompson, volume I (Poems), New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons […], published 1913, →OCLC, page 125:


id.

(bibliography) Abbreviation of idem. Used in citations to state that the citation is found in the same work as the one previously cited.


ya'll

Contraction of ya + all, or you + all with spelling perhaps influenced by you'll.

So ya'll need a place to camp do ya?

1985, Barbara Savage, Miles from Nowhere, page 89:

Ya'll all gotta look real beautiful for tonight.

1987, Beth Henley, The Lucky Spot, page 20:

Ya'll folk forget about the street number.

1999, Connie Rose Porter, Imani All Mine, page 207:

Hinduism — Ya’ll Come Back Now

2000, Frankie Avalon Wolfe, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Being Vegetarian, page 308:

Ya’ll don’t know bout the Souf, fah real // Let me tell ya’ll how it be.

2004, James E. Pittman, The Way We See It: Expressed through poetry and rhyme from friends and family, page 35:

Then, when ya'll were young, ya'll probably learned a lot about manners and how to act, didn't ya'll?

2004, Ronald Everett Capps, Off Magazine Street, page 291:

“I’m Lieutenant Bunger. Ya’ll do exactly as I or any other uniformed officer here tells you to do, whenever he wants ya’ll to do it. Ifen ya’ll don’t do it quickly enough and the way we tell ya’ll to do it, we’ll march ya’ll right to the fuckin’ ‘hole’. For you new inmates […] I mean solitary confinement. We don’t fuck aroun’ with ya’ll here. Ifen ya’ll don’t listen to what we tells yoh, ya’ll be in the ‘hole’ until ya’ll get as blind as a bat from the dark. Right now ya’ll are goin’ to ‘B’ house where ya’ll have a place to sleep this night”.

2005, Jimmie, Life, Death And Sex In Prison, page 21:

Alternative spelling of y'all (especially in AAVE).


hirself

hirself (a reflexive, third person singular, gender-neutral (or multigendered) personal pronoun)

en-pron

From hir + -self, following pattern of herself, himself, and itself.

It is here that Scratch has found hirself, bored out of hir mind but unable to sleep.

1996 June, Catilin Sullivan with Bornstein, Kate, Nearly Roadkill: an Infobahn erotic adventure, New York: Serpent's Tail, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OL, LCC PS3569.U3449 N43 1996, page 13:

Hir nostrils flared, and s/he stopped where s/he was, balancing hirself on hir toes without thought, as if poising hirself to make some sort of attack on whoever was there.

2000, Peter David, Renaissance (Star Trek New Frontier: Excalibur #2), Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, →OL, page 229:

The working person discovered that hir own body belonged, not to the state or to the moralist or to the authoritarian doctor, but to hirself.

2001 June 9, Timothy Leary, chapter 8, in Your Brain is God, Oakland: Ronin Publishing, →ISBN, →LCCN, LCC BP570.L43 2001:

Alas, S/He then remembered S/He had created Hirself to be omnisciently all-knowing and all-seeing, so there were no possibilities S/He didn't already know.

2009, Pope Gus Rasputin Nishnabotna Sni-A-Bar, “Biscuitus”, in The Nuclear Platypus Biscuit Bible: A Spiritual Guide for the Disciples of Biscuitism, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 16:

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

A harrowing series of violent and transphobic confrontations (including some with hir parents) drives Ludo to attempt to kill hirself by going to sleep in a freezer.

2011, Jody Norton, “Transchildren and the Discipline of Children's Literature”, in Kenneth B. Kidd, Michelle Ann Abate, editors, Over the Rainbow: Queer Children's and Young Adult Literature, University of Michigan, →ISBN, LCC PS374.H63 O84 2011, page 306:

(reflexive) Hir, themselves; gender-neutral third-person singular object of a verb or preposition that also appears as the subject, coordinate with gendered himself and herself.

The trouble starts when gender (identity) ceases to be a reference point for connecting with a living growing person and is substituted for the person hirself.

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 164:

OOC talk and actions are taken to represent the player hirself and help other players to form an image, however tentative it may be, of that player.

2002, Frank Schaap, The Words That Took Us There: Ethnography in a Virtual Reality, Amsterdam: Aksant Academic Publishers, →ISBN, →OL, page 90:

Ash hadn't experienced much of that hirself, but s/he assumed it could happen.

2003 April 1, Susan Wright, Slave Trade (Slave Trade Trilogy #1), Pocket Books, →ISBN, →OL, page 97:

(emphatic) Sie; an intensive repetition of a gender-neutral subject, often used to indicate exclusiveness of that person as the only satisfier of a predicate.


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”


hirs

S/he leaned forward and, to Selar's surprise, took the doctor's hand firmly between hirs.

1997 July 1, Peter David, Star Trek New Frontier (Book 1), Simon & Schuster, →ISBN:

She saw that Burgoyne was hefting hirs experimentally, sweeping it through the air. S/he twirled it around a few times, swung it back and forth.

2000, Peter David, Renaissance (Star Trek New Frontier: Excalibur #2), Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 157:

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, LCC PS3556.E427 D73 2006, page 205:

(nonstandard) That which belongs to hir, theirs (singular). Possessive case of hir, used in place of a noun. Coordinate with his and hers.


that one

"Which one do you want?" / "That one over there!"

A specified object, thing or person (especially one further away/over there or known or mentioned later). (This entry is a translation hub.)

az (t)

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


everybody and their brother

everybody and his brother
everybody and his brother#English


everyone and their dog

"Mind you, this was years before everyone and their dog had a cell phone."

2009, Susan Case, That's a Dead One Alright, Tate Publishing, →ISBN, page 114:


zees

Pronunciation spelling of this, representing primarily French-accented English.


thame

...And to charge thame hereto under the pain of rebellion and putting of thame to thr horne...

1797, Edinburgh Magazine: Or Literary Miscellany, (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 180:

...that we communicat with thame in nathing that may appeir to manteane or defend thame...

1846, Thomas M'Cri et al., Lives of the Scottish Reformers, page 190:


it self

[A]s the snow advanced vpon yᵉ poynts vertical of cacuminous mountains dissolveth and discoagulateth it self into humorous liquidity[.]

1597: John Hoskyns’ “A Tuftafffeta Speech”, printed in Sir Benjamin Rudyerd’s 1660 Le Prince d’Amour, and reprinted on page 100 of Louise Brown Osborn’s 1937 The Life, Letters, and Writings of John Hoskyns, 1566–1638 (published by the Yale University Press)

For Physis (as I said) is not the divine Understanding it self, but is as if you should conceive, an Artificers imagination separate from the Artificer, and left alone to work by it self without animadversion.

1647, Henry More, “[Philosophical Poems.] Notes upon Psychozoia.”, in Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor, The Complete Poems of Dr. Henry More (1614–1687) […] (Chertsey Worthies’ Library), [Edinburgh: […] Edinburgh University Press; Thomas and Archibald Constable, […]] for private circulation, published 1878, →OCLC, stanza 41, page 139, column 2:

The mind is its own place, and in it ſelf / Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.

1667, John Milton, “Book I”, 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 254–255:


His Imperial Majesty

(formal) he; him (in reference to a (male) emperor)


this and that

"What have you been doing lately?" — "Oh, you know, this and that."

呢样𠮶样

ni¹ joeng⁶ go² joeng⁶; nei¹ joeng⁶ go² joeng⁶


smthng

Thirdly (and this is what seems so simple, yet is the most difficult) need to create a human story, smthng about which you can’t say: and then Sacha fell in love with Boria, and so forth.[…]in Benoît’s village, and finish either by their leaving (but that would be too good to be true) or by smthng that shows the friendship between Jean-Marie / Hubert (first I had thought: love scene Jean-Marie & Brigitte, then feared it would be too banal).

2008, Olivier Corpet, Garrett White, editors, Woman of Letters: Irène Némirovsky and Suite Française, Five Ties Publishing, Inc., pages 146 and 148:

Can I say smthng? With yr permission?[…]Ok. It’s smthng soft.

2012, Paromita Vohra, “The Romantic Customer”, in Altaf Tyrewala, editor, Mumbai Noir, Akashic Books, →ISBN, part I (Bomb⸝ay), pages 41–42:

Omg, thank you. Thank you sm. Can send smthng rn.

2019, Gemma Files, “The Puppet Motel”, in Ellen Datlow, editor, Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, New York, N.Y.: Saga Press, →ISBN, page 327:

(Internet slang, text messaging) Abbreviation of something.


othersome

From Middle English oþer-sum, equivalent to other + some.

Othersome will say, that by the force of it [imagination], bodies are sometimes removed from their places.


themselfs

Different sorts of pressure and sexual threats need to be not only reduced but stopped altogether. Prison gays must set aside fighting between themselfs over lovers and stick together on the pressure subject.

1985 December 14, Jack Leck, “Stick Together”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 22, page 4:


theirselves

head

theirselves (singular himself or hisself or herself)

himself (singular)
hisself (singular)
herself (singular)

From their + -selves, patterned on ourselves and similar terms.

Or would they have it believed, that there is in their ſelves ſome ſuperior ſanctity, ſome peculiar privilege, by which theſe things are lawful to them, which are unlawful to all the world beſides?

1776, Jeremy Bentham, “A Short Review of the Declaration”, in John Lind, An Anſwer to the Declaration of the American Congress, London: Thomas Cadell, page 121:

Horace: "Look, Jasper! Do you supposed they disguised theirselves?"

1961, Bill Peet, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Walt Disney Productions:

(nonstandard) Alternative form of themselves


yere

What I want ye to remember, as the bullets come out through yere foreheads, is […]

2001, Martin McDonagh, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Scene 8:

The Rubberbandits took to their Twitter (@Rubberbandits) on Tuesday in the wake of the Fringe fest’s apparent typo saying that, “@edfringe As much as we'd love to swear allegiance to Lizzie. Could ye change our country of origin from "England" to Ireland on yere site?” (sic)

2012 Kerry O'Shea Edinburgh’s Fringe festival thinks The Rubberbandits are English IrishCentral 27 July 2012

"I've been listening to yere s**** there all day about how great ye are," he told them. "Who the hell do ye think ye are with yere two All-Irelands and one ambush?"

2012 July 28, Christy O'Connor, “The first great rivalry of the 21st century”, in Irish Independent:

(Ireland) your (plural); of ye, belonging to ye


one and all

Therefore my friends, stand to it one and all, refuse this filthy trash.

1724, Jonathan Swift, “Drapier's Letters”, in 1:

Now this doubloon was of purest, virgin gold […] and however wanton in their sailor ways, one and all, the mariners revered it as the white whale's talisman.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 99, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

[M]en of every condition […] had laid their hearts at her feet. One and all, they had been compelled to pick them up and take them elsewhere.

1920, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 2, in The Coming of Bill:

Later American literary stars like Hemingway, Faulkner, Sinclair Lewis and John Steinbeck, Nobel Prize-winners one and all, never had more than a spoonful of the great gouts of fame that Twain — and Mrs. Stowe, for that matter — enjoyed everywhere in the world.

2010 April 24, Tom Wolfe, “Op-Ed Contributor: Faking West, Going East”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-11-26:

(idiomatic) The entire set of persons or things within a given domain, considered both as separate individuals and collectively.


your ass

your ass (personal pronoun; the second person, singular)

en-pron

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

Why is your ass always so late?

(sometimes vulgar, slang) you (singular); you (singular).

Sit your ass the hell back down, before I bust you upside your head!

(sometimes vulgar, slang) yourself, often used as an intensifier.


hissen

It 'ud be a sight better if he kept they to hissen.

1902, Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary, Being the Complete Vocabulary of All Dialect Words Still in Use, Or Known to Have Been in Use During the Last Two Hundred Years: H-L:

1893-1937, J. Keighley Snowden, "A Ghost Slayer", in A Bottomless Grave: and Other Victorian Tales of Terror
It rade ower my father t' week afore he henged hissen—Aw mind him t—tellin' on 't.


shawty

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

Shawty bad.

Shawty go joggin' every mornin'

2020 October 9, “What You Know Bout Love”, performed by Pop Smoke:

(African-American Vernacular, slang) she or her.


thyselves

From thy + -selves, apparently by analogy with yourselves.

Therefore I call unto thee, repent before me. Humble thyselves. Humble thyselves before me that I may forgive thy sin.

a. 1982, Bobbi Morris (?), quoted in Steven M. Tipton, Getting Saved from the Sixties: Moral Meaning in Conversion and Cultural Change, University of California Press (1982), page 52

1993, Edward James Blakely and Sumner M. Sharp, Planners, Heal Thyselves: Planning Education, Educators, and Practitioners in the Next Century, University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Urban and Regional Planning.
[see title]

Know Thyselves

1999, Tom Hirschfeld, Business Dad: How Good Businessmen Can Make Great Fathers (and Vice Versa), Little, Brown and Company, published 2000, →ISBN, page 62:

(pseudo-archaic, nonstandard) Yourselves; a plural of the archaic pronoun thyself.


you all

I'm very happy to see you all.

All of you; plural form of you, including everyone being addressed.

the list of other second-person plural pronouns at Thesaurus:y'all

I am really longing to see you “all”—as the Southerners say—and aren't you coming east this summer?

I ain't never been as far as you-all aim to go.

1946, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek:

(idiomatic, chiefly Southern US, colloquial) You (with singular or plural referent); y'all.


nother

From Old English nōhwæþer. Compare neither, nauther.

(obsolete outside UK and Caribbean dialects) Neither.


nother

Variant of an other, another, rebracketed as a nother. Compare Middle English a noþer.


youz

(slang, eye dialect) Alternative spelling of yous


theirself

From their + -self, patterned on e.g. myself, ourself/ourselves and herself (construed as being formed from adjectival her).

1977, Lou Rawls, “Some Folks Never Learn”, Unmistakably Lou, Philadelphia International
Some folks never learn / They never learn / Learn how to be true to theirself.

(nonstandard) Alternative form of themselves.


eachother

The pilgrims to the heavenly Salem, who / By nature for eachother were design’d, / In this life oft are near, yet do not meet.

1826, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, “Klopstock's Messiah”, in G. H. C. Egestorff, transl., Der Messias, canto XIV, lines 94-6, page 427:

Lao Tse is seeking to make clear the relation of the unmanifested and the manifested Logos to eachother, as poles of the same Being.

1921 April, Charles Johnston, "Tao-Teh-King: An Interpretation of Lao Tse's Book of the Way and of Righteousness", part I (of VIII), in The Theosophical Quarterly, volume XVIII, The Theosophical Society, page 347

Our last night together! […] How are we going to cope with the absence of eachother?

2006, Karunkar Nair, Pebbles in the Sand, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 44:

(nonstandard) Alternative spelling of each other


you-know-what

The name of something the speaker does not want to mention, but which is known, or very likely to be known, to the listener.


his nibs

Comes from early 19th century in literature. From the British, it was noticed that "nabs" was in use; from the Dutch was seen "nebs"

Do you know what time His Nibs will be arriving?

Mock title used to refer to an authoritative, bossy or demanding man.


your servant

Calque of Biblical Hebrew עַבְדְּךָ (ʿaḇdəḵā) and עַבְדְּכֶם (ʿaḇdəḵem)

calque

(humble, archaic, chiefly in Bible translations) I, me


whichsoe'er

/ˌwɪtʃsəʊˈɛə/

/ˌwɪt͡ʃsoʊˈɛɹ/

/ˌʍɪt͡ʃsoʊˈɛɹ/

(poetic) Alternative spelling of whichsoever


whichsoever

/ˌwɪtʃsəʊˈɛvə/

/ˌwɪt͡ʃsoʊˈɛvɚ/

/ˌʍɪt͡ʃsoʊˈɛvɚ/

From Middle English which-so-ever. By surface analysis, which + so + ever.


simi

tlb

(Singapore, colloquial, informal, Singlish)

From Hokkien 甚麼 / 什麼／甚么 / 什么 (sím-mih, “what”).

bor

Simi lanchiao?

2016 January 22, <wakal...@yahoo.com.sg>, “China - Imperial Family”, in soc.culture.china (Usenet):

Everyday must cook lah, clean lah, simi sai mah pao kah liao lor.

1998 August 9, K§_Chew, tmnet.communities (Usenet):

Search the acronym and you'll uncover them, including one called 'Simi Sai, also SG50' which describes the latest SG50 branding effort[…].

2015 August 4, Sharanjit Leyl, “Cashing in on Singapore's 'SG50' jubilee”, in BBC News, Singapore:

I pleaded guilty because I am unable to prove in court that the articles in question does^([sic – meaning do]) not have seditious tendencies because simi-sai also can be proven to have seditious tendencies.

2018 March 24, Jewel Stolarchuk, “Former TRS editor who now runs ramen stall “terribly disappointed” that PAP Policy Forum holds “unfair” views about him, even after jail term”, in The Independent:


hes

The idea was hes not mine.

(nonstandard, uncommon) Alternative form of his when pronounced as he's; that that belongs to him.