“Him” is used as an object pronoun to refer to a male person or animal that has already been mentioned, as in “I saw him.” It receives the action of the verb or follows a preposition.
From Old English “him,” the dative form of “hē,” meaning “he.” The form stayed surprisingly stable while other pronouns changed around it.
“Him” is one of the oldest survivors in English—it looks almost the same as it did over a thousand years ago. Your brain instantly knows its job in a sentence: it never owns (that’s “his”) and never acts (that’s “he”); it only receives. Tiny function words like this are the hidden gears that keep sentences running smoothly.
‘Him’ is a masculine pronoun that has also been used generically in English (e.g., ‘each student should bring his book’), effectively erasing women and nonbinary people. This generic masculine usage was standard in many formal contexts until the late 20th century.
Use ‘him’ only for individuals who use he/him pronouns; avoid using it as a generic for unknown or mixed-gender groups. Use singular ‘they’ or rephrase to be gender-neutral when gender is unknown or irrelevant.
["them","that person","the individual"]
When revising or quoting older texts, note how generic ‘him’ contributed to women’s invisibility in law, science, and literature, and how women writers and activists pushed for more inclusive pronoun use.
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