she

English Online Dictionary. What means she‎? What does she mean?

Translingual

Symbol

she

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Sheko.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Sheko terms

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English sche, scho, hyo, ȝho (“she”), whence also Yorkshire dialectal shoo (“she”), Scots she, sho (“she”).

Probably from Old English hēo (whence dialectal English hoo), with an irregular change in stress from hēo to heō /hjoː/, then a development from /hj-/ to /ç/ to /ʃ-/, similar to the derivation of Shetland from Old Norse Hjaltland. In this case, she is from Proto-West Germanic *hiju, from Proto-Germanic *hijō f (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (“this, here”), and is cognate with Saterland Frisian jo, ju, West Frisian hja, North Frisian jü, Danish hun, Swedish hon; more at he.

A derivation from Old English sēo (“the or that", occasionally "she”) is also possible, though less likely. In that case, sēo would have undergone a change in stress from sēo to seō /sjoː/, then a change from /sj-/ to /ʃ-/, similar to the derivation of sure from Old French seur. It would then be cognate to Dutch zij and German sie.

Neither etymology would be expected to yield the modern vocalism in /iː/ (the expected form would be shoo, which is in fact found dialectally). It may be due to influence from he, but both hēo and sēo also have rare variants (hīe and sīe) that may give modern English /iː/.

Pronunciation

• (UK, Canada) IPA^(key): /ʃiː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ʃi/
• Rhymes: -iː
• Homophones: sidhe, Xi, shee

Pronoun

she (third-person singular, feminine, nominative case, oblique and possessive her, possessive hers, reflexive herself)

1. (personal) The female (typically) person or animal previously mentioned or implied.
2. (personal, sometimes endearing) A ship or boat.

3. (personal, dated, sometimes endearing) A country, or sometimes a city, province, planet, etc.

4. (personal, endearing or poetic, chiefly dated) A thing, especially a machine or other object, such as a car, a computer, or (poetically) a season.
5. (personal, nonstandard) A person whose gender is unknown or irrelevant (used in a work, along with or in place of he, as an indefinite pronoun).

Usage notes

• Since at least the 1920s and 30s, some gay or queer men refer to other gay or queer men and/or themselves with she/her pronouns, as well as with other feminine terms such as Miss and girl, to signal their sexuality rather than their gender identity; this has sometimes been termed "the gay she":

Alternative forms

• shoo, hoo (Northern England dialect)
• shee (obsolete)

Derived terms

Related terms

• she-

Translations

See also

Determiner

she

1. (African-American Vernacular) Synonym of her

Noun

she (plural shes)

1. A female.
   • 2000, Sue V. Rosser, Building inclusive science volume 28, issues 1–2, page 189:

     A world where the hes are so much more common than the shes can hardly be seen as a welcoming place for women.

See also

References

Anagrams

• EH&S, EHS, Esh, HSE, ehs, esh, he's, hes, hse

Albanian

Alternative forms

• shena — Gheg

Etymology

A derivative of shi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃe/
• Rhymes: -ʃe

Noun

she m (plural she, definite sheu, definite plural shetë)

1. undrying rivulet, torrent, rapid stream

Declension

Related terms

• shi

References

Further reading

• FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎^[2], 1980
• “she”, in FGJSH: Fjalor i gjuhës shqipe [Dictionary of the Albanian language] (in Albanian), 2006
• Mann, S. E. (1948) “shé”, in An Historical Albanian–English Dictionary, London: Longmans, Green & Co., page 470

Japanese

Romanization

she

1. The katakana syllable シェ (she) in Hepburn-like romanization.

Mandarin

Romanization

she

1. Nonstandard spelling of shē.
2. Nonstandard spelling of shé.
3. Nonstandard spelling of shě.
4. Nonstandard spelling of shè.

Usage notes

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

Manx

Etymology

From Old Irish is ed (“it is so”). Compare Irish sea, Scottish Gaelic seadh.

Particle

she (dependent form nee)

1. Present/future copula form

   She ynseyder eh Juan. ― John is a teacher. (definition: predicate is indefinite)

   She Juan yn ynseyder. ― John is the teacher. (identification: predicate is definite)

   She mish honnick eh. ― It's me who saw him. (cleft sentence)

   She Juan ta ny ynseyder. ― It's John who is a teacher. (cleft sentence)

Usage notes

Used in present and future sentences for identification or definition of a subject as the person/object identified in the predicate of the sentence. Used to introduce cleft sentences, which are extremely common in Manx. It is not a verb. For the particle that introduces adjectives, see s'.

She has no past tense; the appropriate conjugation of ve must be used instead.

Middle English

Pronoun

she

1. Alternative form of sche

Wutunhua

Etymology

From Mandarin 十 (shí).

Numeral

she

1. ten

References

• Erika Sandman (2016) A Grammar of Wutun‎^[3], University of Helsinki (PhD), →ISBN