Dictionary entry

His

Webster's Dictionary 1913

His (?), pron. [AS. his of him, his, gen. masc. & neut. of h�, neut. hit. See He.] 1. Belonging or pertaining to him; — used as a pronominal adjective or adjective pronoun; as, tell John his papers are ready; formerly used also for its, but this use is now obsolete.

No comfortable star did lend his light. Shak.

Who can impress the forest, bid the tree

Unfix his earth-bound root? Shak.

☞ Also formerly used in connection with a noun simply as a sign of the possessive. “The king his son.” Shak. “By young Telemachus his blooming years.” Pope. This his is probably a corruption of the old possessive ending -is or -es, which, being written as a separate word, was at length confounded with the pronoun his.

2. The possessive of he; as, the book is his. “The sea is his, and he made it.” Ps. xcv. 5.