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themself

themself

17 7.4
A reflexive pronoun used for one person when the person's gender is not given
  • pronoun
  • /ðɛmˈsɛlf/
: sí mismo
  • I think every entrepreneur needs to challenge themself in something totally different than what they do.
  • places to protect themself
  • one who considers themself

They don't like themself, they don't know themself.

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Examples

  • But basically each individual is sovereign over themself, and that's where modern doctrines of individual rights come from.

  • You can't trust someone who can't trust themself.

    Blog text (19)
  • It's a little funny to say that like a nine year old knows themself that well.

  • Go home, do your job... and at the appropriate moment, somebody will present themself to you.

  • I think everyone comes to the point where they ask "is this real?" for themself.

  • Of the 30 participants, one identified themself as having a child or children.

    Academic text (2014)
  • If you ask me, anyone who hates their job has no one to blame but themself.

  • And you'll notice that when a child finally sees themself in a mirror, right?

  • The fantasy is that someone is both noble enough to sacrifice themself for the greater good and has the power, in terms of money, physical ability, and brains, to make a difference.

    Blog text (30)
  • At some point in life, everyone must learn to be true to themself.

Surface Forms

themself reflexive

Morphology

themself = them + self (transparent) = them + self

The meaning is directly derived by combining the pronoun 'them' with 'self' to form a reflexive reference; learners who know 'them' and 'self' can infer the meaning.

Etymology

Themself is simply them + self, where self means 'own person', and it works like familiar words such as yourself or himself. Today themself is used when 'they' refers to one person whose gender is not said or who is nonbinary, so it shows that the same person acts for or about themselves.