Contextualizebeta

he

pron
/ˈhiː//hiː/CA/hi(ː)/US/heɪ/

Etymology

From Middle English he, from Old English hē, from Proto-West Germanic *hiʀ, from Proto-Germanic *hiz (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱís (“this”). Cognate with Scots he (“he”), North Frisian he, hi (“he”), Saterland Frisian hie (“he”), West Frisian hy (“he”), Dutch hij, ie (“he”), German Low German he (“he”), Middle High German her (“he”) Central Franconian hä (“he”), Gothic *𐌷𐌹𐍃 (*his, “this”).

  1. inherited from *ḱís✻ — “this”
  2. inherited from *hiz✻ — “this, this one”
  3. inherited from *hiʀ✻
  4. inherited from hē
  5. inherited from he

Definitions

  1. A person who identifies as male, or animal already known or implied.

    • That friend of your cousin's, he's on the phone.
    • "It was he we saw the tracks of down by Rausand hill."

  2. They

    They; he or she (a person whose gender is unknown or irrelevant).

    • The rulebook clearly states that "if any student is caught cheating, he will be expelled", and you were caught cheating, were you not, Anna?
    • First, to avoid the cumbrous ‘he or she’ and ‘his or hers’, and the ungrammatical ‘they’ when used in the singular, I have mostly stuck to saying ‘he’ or ‘his’. I hope that this will be understood in an unchauvinistic, gender-neutral way.

  3. It

    It; an animal whose gender is unknown.

  4. ›+ 23 more definitions

    1. A genderless object regarded as masculine, such as certain stars or planets (e.g. Sun,…

      A genderless object regarded as masculine, such as certain stars or planets (e.g. Sun, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter) or certain ships.

      • JUPITER is the largest of all the Planets, his Orbit lies between the Orbits of the Earth and Mars, and at the cast Distance of 426 Millions of Miles from the Sun, he goes round him in 11 Years, 314 Days and 12 Hours; […]
      • He [= the ship Bismarck] was made to rule the waves across the seven seas […]

    2. Synonym of his.

    3. The game of tag, or it, in which the player attempting to catch the others is called "he".

    4. The player who chases and attempts to catch the others in this game.

    5. A male.

      • Is your cat a he or a she?

    6. The name of the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets (Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew,…

      The name of the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets (Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic and others).

      • The same number in the Hebrew mysteries and Cabalistical accounts was the character of Generation; declared by the Letter He, the fifth in their Alphabet.
      • This Nehama claimed that in his own hand he recognized the consonant “he” of his Hebrew language, and in the letter “vav” his own male soul.

    7. The name of the first letter of the Old South Arabian abjad.

    8. An expression of laughter.

      • (more common)

    9. Honorific alternative letter-case form of he, sometimes used when referring to God or…

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

      • I love the Lord for He is Great and Holy.

    10. A surname from Mandarin.

      • The story of Ms. He and her mother began in the early 1960s, shortly before the Cultural Revolution shook China.

    11. Initialism of high explosive.

      • This here is sixty-six tons of straight-up, HE-spewing dee-vine intervention!

    12. Initialism of higher education.

    13. Initialism of health education.

    14. Initialism of His Excellency / Her Excellency.

    15. Initialism of His Eminence.

    16. Initialism of home entertainment.

    17. Initialism of human era (“current epoch”).

    18. Abbreviation of hydroelectricity.

    19. Initialism of home economics.

    20. Initialism of hydrogen embrittlement.

    21. Abbreviation of Hesse

      Abbreviation of Hesse: a state of Germany.

    22. Abbreviation of hydroelectric.

    23. Initialism of how embarrassing.

The neighborhood

Derived

a man is known by the company he keeps, he-ass, he-bitch, he-cat, he-goat, he-man, he-whore, he-wolf, he'd, he-elephant, hefemale, he-huckleberry, he-ing and she-ing, he laughs best that laughs last, heorshe, hepeat, he said, she said, heself, he-she, he shoots, he scores, he who hesitates is lost, he who laughs last laughs hardest, he who laughs last laughs best, hse, s/he, he/she, he or she, she-he, speak of the devil and he will appear, te-he, that's what he said

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for he. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA