hisn
See also: his'n
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English hisen, ultimately corresponding to an alteration of his after mine, thine.
Pronoun
hisn
- (now dialectal, British and US, especially Appalachia) His. [from 15th c.]
- 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXXII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC:
- I will not show him this letter of yours, though you seem to desire it, lest it should provoke him to be too severe a schoolmaster, when you are his'n.
- 1848, James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers:
- An' every feller felt ez though all Mexico wuz hisn.
- [1921 [1919], H. L. Mencken, The American Language, 2nd edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 297:
- But in the absolute whosen is often substituted, as in "if it ain't hisn, then whosen is it?" The imitation is obvious.]