When you're editing a formal document or writing an essay, you'll occasionally spot nonstandard pronouns that slip past spellcheck. One of the most prominent examples is hisself. While standard English strictly mandates himself, the nonstandard variant persists in regional dialects, historical texts, and vernacular speech. Understanding why this split exists helps clarify how prescriptive rules differ from descriptive linguistic reality.
In standard English grammar, reflexive pronouns are formed by combining a possessive determiner or personal pronoun with the suffix -self or -selves. For the third-person masculine singular, the standard form is himself. This aligns with patterns like myself, yourself, herself, and themselves. The form hisself pairs the possessive determiner his with the suffix -self, mirroring how myself uses my and yourself uses your. Even though this logical symmetry tempts speakers into analogical leveling, standard usage rejects hisself entirely in formal writing.
The Historical Roots of Hisself
The history of English pronouns explains why hisself feels intuitive to many speakers. In Middle English and early Modern English, possessive pronouns like his, my, and thy served as the base for reflexive forms. People regularly used expressions like his self or hisself without social stigma.
Over centuries, as dictionaries and grammar books codified standard English during the 18th and 19th centuries, grammarians favored object pronouns (him, me) combined with -self for third-person and first-person forms, while retaining possessive forms for second-person (your-) and first-person plural (our-). This created an irregular paradigm in standard English:
- First person: myself (possessive base)
- Second person: yourself (possessive base)
- Third person masculine: himself (objective base)
- Third person feminine: herself (possessive base)
- Third person plural: themselves (possessive/objective mix)
Because standard English mixes possessive and objective bases across pronouns, children and native speakers naturally attempt to regularize the system. Applying the possessive base to all pronouns leads directly to hisself and theirselves. While these forms make internal logical sense within the language's structural history, prescriptive grammar labels them as nonstandard errors in formal registers.
Dialectal Validity and Sociolinguistics
Linguists draw a sharp line between prescriptive grammar—the rules taught in classrooms and style guides—and descriptive linguistics, which studies how people actually speak. From a descriptive standpoint, hisself is a legitimate feature in several well-documented varieties of English.
In African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and various Southern American English dialects, hisself functions as a systematic, rule-governed variant. Speakers in these speech communities use it naturally, and listeners within those communities understand its pragmatic weight. Dismissing it as a mere mistake ignores the rich historical continuity and cultural legitimacy of these dialects.
Linguist John McWhorter explores language variation extensively in works like The Power of Babel, emphasizing that dialects possess internal logic just as robust as standard written forms. When a speaker uses hisself in a conversational or regional context, they aren't failing to understand English; they are participating in a specific dialectal tradition.
Professional Writing vs. Literary Dialogue
The practical application of these pronouns depends entirely on genre, audience, and medium.
In professional, academic, or journalistic writing, using hisself immediately signals an error to editors and readers. Major style guides, such as the Associated Press Stylebook, uniformly require himself for all edited prose. Straying from this standard in a business report or a university paper compromises your professional credibility.
Conversely, in creative writing, dialogue, and regional literature, strictly enforcing standard pronouns can ruin authenticity. Authors use nonstandard spellings and grammar to flesh out characters, establish geographic origins, or reflect socioeconomic backgrounds. A fictional character raised in a remote rural community will sound unnatural if they speak with textbook precision. In these creative spaces, hisself becomes a vital tool for characterization.
Common Mistakes and Misconceptions
Writers and students often trip over related pronoun traps that share structural similarities with the himself debate.
- The Theirselves Trap: Just as hisself arises from regularizing the masculine singular, theirselves or themself attempts to fix the plural themselves. Standard English requires themselves for plural antecedents.
- Hypercorrection: Speakers attempting to sound overly formal sometimes introduce hypercorrections, avoiding valid forms or misapplying rules. However, using himself is never a hypercorrection—it is the baseline standard.
- Intensive vs. Reflexive Confusion: Reflexive pronouns act as objects reflecting the subject (He hurt himself), while intensive pronouns add emphasis (The director himself signed the paperwork). In both cases, standard English demands himself.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is hisself an officially recognized word in major dictionaries?
Major dictionaries like Merriam-Webster list hisself, but they explicitly label it as archaic, regional, or nonstandard. It appears in dictionaries because lexicographers record how people use the language, not to endorse every term for formal use.
Why do children naturally say hisself?
Children apply regular patterns to irregular systems. Since myself and yourself use possessive bases (my and your), children naturally assume the masculine form should follow the same rule and produce hisself. Adults correct this pattern during language acquisition to match standard norms.
Can I use hisself in fiction writing?
Yes. When writing dialogue or capturing a specific regional voice, using hisself helps establish a character's background and adds realistic texture to prose. Avoid it in narrative exposition unless the narrative voice explicitly adopts a colloquial persona.
What is the difference between prescriptive and descriptive grammar regarding this issue?
Prescriptive grammar dictates how people should write according to established rules (mandating himself). Descriptive grammar observes how people actually speak in real life (documenting that hisself is actively used in specific dialects). Both perspectives matter depending on whether you are writing an essay or studying sociolinguistics.
