Where does “theirs” come from?
Theirs comes from Middle English theires, from Old Norse þeirra, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European -es, a possessive suffix indicating belonging to multiple persons.
theirs (English): That which belongs to them; the possessive case...
Definitions
- That which belongs to them; the possessive case...
Ancestry of “theirs”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | þeires | Third-person plural genitive pronoun: theirs |
| 2 | Middle English | -es | Alternative form of -yssh; Alternative form of... |
| 3 | Old English | -es | possessive marker, indicating that an object... |
| 4 | Proto-Germanic | -as | — |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | -ēs | Primarily forms adjectival bahuvrīhi compounds |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -ess | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -os | Creates action nouns or result nouns from verbs;... |