Discussion Forum (Archived)
Guest
If you look at Google's ngram viewer, theyselves has been a nonstandard part of the written language since 1822 and the oral language probably before that.
I don't know if it evolves from themselves or thyselves, but I suspect the latter, since you can say "theyselves are to blame" but not "themselves are to blame", although "they themselves are to blame" works.
It used to be language I associated with hillbillies, or possibly with ebonics, but it seems to be getting more common among literate white folk, especially in informal writings, sometimes with a yeah, I know I'm being illiterate conspiratorial attitude, but sometimes being just folks.
It appears only to exist in three online dictionaries, all of them using "user-contibuted conternt", but as we approach 2 centuries of use in print, the professional lexicographers may soon take notice.
It may have simply come from the perceived need for subject use of the -self/-selves words. It seems these all come from the old dative forms of the pronouns. In contemporary English, it makes for something of a jumble. Some appear to be built on the object form, some on the possessive form, and some on an ambiguous form. Himself and themselves appear built on him and them, the object. Myself, yourself, ourselves appear built on my, your, our, the possessive. Herself is ambiguous, and could be object or possessive. Oneself can clearly be traced to one's self, but lost the possessive in analogy to itself.
Online Etymology Dictionary: herself
Regardless, there is a strong sense of the possessive within these words. When split up, the pronoun will always take on the possessive.
"His pitiful self"
"Their honorable selves"
"One's best self"
As a result of this jumble, various forms pop up in casual speech and dialect, often the possessive: hisself and theirselves. Perhaps notably there is a revival of themself with the singular form for use with the singular impersonal they
Oxford themself
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
1 Guest(s)