His (?), pron. [AS.
his of him, his, gen.
masc. & neut. of h&?;, neut.
hit. See He.]
1. Belonging or pertaining to him; -- used as a pronominal adjective or adjective pronoun; as, tell John his papers are ready; formerly used also for its, but this use is now obsolete.
No comfortable star did lend his light.
Shak. Who can impress the forest, bid the tree
Unfix his earth-bound root?
Shak. &fist; Also
formerly used in connection with a noun simply
as a sign of the possessive. "The king his son." Shak. "By young Telemachus his blooming years." Pope.
This his is probably a
corruption of the old possessive ending - is or -es, which, being written as a
separate word, was at length
confounded with the pronoun his.
2. The possessive of he; as,
the book is
his. "The sea is his, and he
made it." Ps. xcv. 5.