Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
He
He
(hē)
, p
ron.
[
nom.
He
; p
oss.
His
(hĭz)
; obj.
Him
(hĭm)
; pl.
nom.
They
(thā)
; p
oss.
Their
or Theirs
(thârz or thārz)
; obj.
Them
(thĕm)
.] [AS.
hē
, masc., heó
, fem., hit
, neut.; pl. hī
, or hie
, hig
; akin to OFries. hi
, D. hij
, OS. he
, hi
, G. heute
to-day, Goth. himma
, dat. masc., this, hina
, accus. masc., and hita
, accus. neut., and prob. to L. his
this. √183. Cf. It
.] 1.
The man or male being (or object personified to which the masculine gender is assigned), previously designated; a pronoun of the masculine gender, usually referring to a specified subject already indicated.
Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and
he
shall rule over thee. Gen. iii. 16.
Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God;
him
shalt thou serve. Deut. x. 20.
2.
Any one; the man or person; – used indefinitely, and usually followed by a relative pronoun.
He
that walketh with wise men shall be wise. Prov. xiii. 20.
3.
Man; a male; any male person; – in this sense used substantively.
Chaucer.
I stand to answer thee,
Or any
Or any
he
, the proudest of thy sort. Shakespeare
☞ When a collective noun or a class is referred to, he is of common gender. In early English,
he
referred to a feminine or neuter noun, or to one in the plural, as well as to noun in the masculine singular. In composition, he
denotes a male animal; as, a he
-goat. Webster 1828 Edition
He
HE
, pronoun of the third person; nom. he; poss.his; obj. him. [L. id, for hid; hic.]1.
A pronoun, a substitute for the third person, masculine gender, representing the man or male person named before. Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. Gen.3.
Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God; him shalt thou serve. Deut.10.
2.
It often has reference to a person that is named in the subsequent part of the sentence. He is the man.3.
He is often used without reference to any particular person, and may be referred to any person indefinitely that answers the description. It is then synonymous with any man. He that walketh with wise men, shall be wise. Prov.13.
4.
He, when a substitute for man in its general sense, expressing mankind, is of common gender, representing, like its antecedent, the whole human race. My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh. Gen.6.
5.
Man; a male. I stand to answer thee, or any he the proudest of thy sort.
In this use of he, in the ludicrous style, the word has no variation of case. In the foregoing sentence, he is in the objective case, or position, and the word is to be considered as a noun.
6.
He is sometimes prefixed to the names of animals to designate the male kind, as a he-goat, a he-bear. In such cases, he is to be considered as an adjective, or the two words as forming a compound.