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Why “themselves” and “himself”

I = myself 　　you = yourself　　he = himself 　　she = herself 　it = itself 　　we = ourselves　　you = yourselves　　they = themselves one=oneself See? All other forms are formed from posessive plus self/selves except for "himself" and "themselves"? Is there any reason? And IMHO that “herself” is formed from the possessive “her”- not the objective. As for “it(s)self” and “one('s)self”, the “s”of the possessive is being reduced, as it appears next to the “s” of “self”. Actually someone did bring this one up days ago and some said that it must have something to do with the dative cases in Old English merging to become the objective in Middle English, but sadly, there was never a full answer. Can anyone dig that history of language up?

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Daisy
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  • I don't know if this actually answers the question. Why, if all other forms are formed from [posessive] + self (see note), is it himself and themselves. I believe I remember being told in one of my linguistics classes that hisself and theirselves were the original forms, and then later changed. Note: I would argue that herself is formed from the possessive "her", not the objective. Additionally, I would argue that in itself and oneself, the "s" of the possessive is simply being reduced, as it appears next to the "s" of "self". – rintaun Jun 28 at 23:25 – Daisy Jul 08 '11 at 02:15
  • I copied from others. It's about the posessive form, only "HIMself" and "THEMselves" didn't use their posessive, instead they use their objective "HIMself" and "THEMselves":) – Daisy Jul 08 '11 at 02:18
  • That is a very good question.... – Thursagen Jul 08 '11 at 02:24
  • I know, that's why I'm obsessed with it for so long and also did many research but never reached any point yet. – Daisy Jul 08 '11 at 02:28
  • This question was closed because of a "duplicate" whose chosen answer didn't actually answer the question. I've added another answer to that duplicate that will hopefully give you some insight into why this split happened, although not all the details are clear. – Neil Coffey Jul 08 '11 at 11:14
  • Moderators, I'd like to reopen this question, as it is not yet answered, even by the duplicate question. – Thursagen Jul 08 '11 at 23:47

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