“Sit down,” said the young man, gruffly. “He’ll be in soon.” I obeyed; andhemmed, and called the villain Juno, who deigned, at this second interview, to move the extreme tip of her tail, in token of owning my acquaintance.
He’s in the saddle now. Fall in! Steady, the whole brigade! Hill’s at the ford, cut off — we’ll win his way out, ball and blade! What matter if our shoes are worn? What matter if our feet are torn? “Quick step! We’re with him before the morn!” That’s “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.” The sun’s bright lances rout the mists of morning, and by George! Here’s Longstreet struggling in the lists,hemmed in an ugly gorge. Pope and his Yankees, whipped before, “Bay’nets and grape!” hear Stonewall roar; “Charge, Stuart! Pay off Ashby’s score!” in “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.
FromMiddle Englishhem, fromOld Englishheom(“them”,dative), originally a dative plural form but in Middle English coming to serve as an accusative plural as well. More at'em.
1591,John Florio,Second Frutes to be gathered of twelve trees, of diverse but delightful tastes to the tongues of Italian and English:
‘What thinke you of this English, tel me I pray you.’ ‘It is a language that wyl do you good in England but passe Dover, it is woorth nothing.’ ‘Is it not used then in other countreyes?’ ‘No sir, with whom wyl you that they speake?’ ‘With English marchants.’ ‘English marchantes, when they are out of England, it likethhem not, and they doo not speake it.
1 Used only as an object of a preposition or a verb. 2 The collective pronouns specify that the action is performed by all subjects together, rather than on their own. Some speakers may not distinguish various plurality categories, using only one or two plural pronouns.
1) Not as common in written language. 2) Inflected as anadjective. 3) Inprescriptivist use, used only as direct object (accusative). 4) Inprescriptivist use, used only as indirect object (dative). 5) Archaic. Nowadays used for formal, literary or poetic purposes, and in fixed expressions. 6) To differentiate from the singulargij,gelle (object formelle) and variants are commonly used colloquially in Belgium. Archaic forms aregijlieden andgijlui ("you people").
7)Zich is preferred if the reflexive pronoun immediately follows the subject pronounu, e.g.Meldt u zich aan! 'Log in!', and if the subject pronounu is used with a verb form that is identical with the third person singular but different from the informal second person singular, e.g.U heeft zich aangemeld. 'You have logged in.' Onlyu can be used in an imperative if the subject pronoun is not overt, e.g.Meld u aan! 'Log in!', whereu is the reflexive pronoun. Otherwise, bothu andzich are equally possible, e.g.U meldt u/zich aan. 'You log in.' 8) Not officially recognized in standard Dutch. It has gained popularity, especially in mainstream media and queer circles, as a respectful term fornon-binary individuals.
N. A Baskakov, editor (1972), “хем”, inGagauzsko-Russko-Moldavskij Slovarʹ [Gagauz-Russian-Moldovan Dictionary], Moskva: Izdatelʹstvo Sovetskaja Enciklopedija,→ISBN, page518
Kopuşçu M. İ. , Todorova S. A. , Kiräkova T.İ., editors (2019), “hem”, inGagauzça-rusça sözlük: klaslar 5-12, Komrat: Gagauziya M.V. Maruneviç adına Bilim-Aaraştırma merkezi,→ISBN, page79
Thisetymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at theEtymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Almost certainly an ad-hoc natural exclamation (do any sources explicitly label it as such in terms of etymological studies?)”
DAVUS: By Hercules, I don’t know [what you’re talking about]. SIMO: You don’t?Really? DAVUS: Nope — I’m Davus, not Oedipus. (The wily slave Davus acts as if his master Simo speaks in riddles: Oedipus famously solved the riddle of the sphinx.)
And with alle these men I was ofte homli and I comownede withhem long tyme and fele, and so bifore alle othir men I chees wilfulli to be enformed bihem and ofhem, and speciali of Wiclef himsilf, as of the moost vertuous and goodlich wise man that I herde of owhere either knew.
1 Used preconsonantally or beforeh. 2 Early or dialectal. 3Dual pronouns are only sporadically found in Early Middle English; after that, they are replaced by plural forms. There are no third person dual forms in Middle English. 4 Sometimes used as a formal 2nd person singular.
Ska vi gåhem till dig ellerhem till mig, ellervar och enhem till sitt? Ska vi göra som dom andra ochägna oss åt varandra, eller skavar och en sköta sitt?
Shall we go to your place [home to you] or to my place [home to me], or each one ["each and one" – idiomatic]home to theirs [nominalized – neuter gender is used when there is no concretereferent, like in impersonal constructions and here, as a rule of thumb]? Shall we do like the others and spend time on each other [engage in each other as an activity – doesn't have the connotations of "devote"], or shall each one mind [take care of] theirs [nominalized]?
