English
she
She comes from Middle English sche.
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English she
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto IX: “Goodly she entertaind those noble knights, / And brought…”.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500scheWiktionary, English she
- Englishearliest quotation 1590sheWiktionary, English she. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto IX: “Goodly she entertaind those noble knights, / And brought…”
The story
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 (“that one”, 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.
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with she, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *ḱe- ‘this, here’
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Today it means
pron The female (typically) person or animal previously mentioned or implied.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “she”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Middle English sche / she