themselves
pronunciation
How to pronounce themselves in British English:
UK [ðəmˈselvz]
How to pronounce themselves in American English:
US [ðəmˈselvz]
Word Origin
- themselves (pron.)
- mid-15c. in northern dialect, standard from 1540s, alteration of Middle English tham-self, emphatic plural pronoun, also reciprocal pronoun (14c.); see them + self, with self, originally an inflected adjective, treated as a noun with a meaning "person" and pluralized. Displacing Old English heom selfum (dative). Themself returned late 20c. as some writers took to replacing himself with gender-neutral everyone, anyone, etc.
Example
- 1. They 're also negative to themselves .
- 2. Particularly intelligent people can be especially good at deceiving themselves .
- 3. So-called polymorphic viruses employ encryption to scramble themselves .
- 4. Justified or not , such worries will themselves wreak damage .
- 5. Diana : they killed uncle ben and then kept his treaty for themselves .