her

pronoun

1. the objective case of she: We saw her this morning. Give this book to her.
2. the possessive case of she (used as an attributive adjective): Her coat is the one on the chair. I’m sorry about her leaving.Compare hers.
3. the dative case of she: I gave her the book.
4. Informal. (used instead of the pronoun she in the predicate after the verb to be): It’s her. It isn’t her.

noun

5. Slang. a female: Is the new baby a her or a him?

pronoun, singular nominative she, possessive her or hers, objective her; plural nominative they, possessive their or theirs, objective them.

1. the female person or animal being discussed or last mentioned; that female.
2. the woman: She who listens learns.
3. anything considered, as by personification, to be feminine: spring, with all the memories she conjures up.

noun, plural shes.

4. a female person or animal.
5. an object or device considered as female or feminine.

1. heraldic.
2. heraldry.

pronoun (objective)

1. refers to a female person or animalhe loves her; they sold her a bag; something odd about her; lucky her!
2. refers to things personified as feminine or traditionally to ships and nations
3. mainly US a dialect word for herself she needs to get her a better job

determiner

4. of, belonging to, or associated with herher silly ideas; her hair; her smoking annoys me

abbreviation for

1. heraldic
2. heraldry

pronoun (subjective)

1. refers to a female person or animalshe is a doctor; she’s a fine mare
2. refers to things personified as feminine, such as cars, ships, and nations
3. Australian and NZ an informal word for it 1 (def. 3) she’s apples; she’ll be right

noun

4. 1. a female person or animal
   2. (in combination)she-cat

objective case

Old English hire, third person singular feminine dative pronoun, which beginning in 10c. replaced accusative hie (see he). Cognate with Old Frisian hiri, Middle Dutch hore, Dutch haar, Old High German iru, German ihr.

possessive case

Old English hire, third person singular feminine genitive form of heo “she” (see she).

pron.

mid-12c., probably evolving from Old English seo, sio (accusative sie), fem. of demonstrative pronoun se “the,” from PIE root *so- “this, that” (see the). The Old English word for “she” was heo, hio, however by 13c. the pronunciation of this had converged by phonetic evolution with he “he,” which apparently led to the fem. demonstrative pronoun being used in place of the pronoun (cf. similar development in Dutch zij, German sie, Greek he, etc.). The original h- survives in her. A relic of the Old English pronoun is in Manchester-area dialectal oo “she.” As a noun meaning “a female,” she is attested from 1530s.