Word is arguing with me that “theirselves*” is not a word, but the Scottish part of my brain is refusing to give it up. I have been using that word since I was knee high to a splinter, it makes sense in my head, but I know someone would bitch about it as a grammatical error or some such if I used it in Phangs.
Which is unfortunate, cause as it would turn out, I’ve used it. A lot.
*themselves just doesn’t have the same meaning? Don’t ask I don’t know. It’s likely a colloquial thing.
I get it, you want a possessive pronoun instead of an objective one?
YES, thank you I’ve been trying to pin it down and sitting here just saying the word over and over trying to figure out why it feels right.
There is a slight semantic difference! You’ll see people claim that ‘theirself’ is technically incorrect grammar but that’s prescriptivist talk. If there’s a hole in the lexicon someone will fill it 😉
I mean it’s already there, it exists in Scottish dialect. I just know I’ll likely get schtick for putting it in a book, or some pedant will pick up on it and leave a remark about it not being “proper English”, which no, it’s not. But I feel it should be. It fills a gap, as you say. And language ought to change with the times.
Huh. I’d never realised I used theirselves until this very moment. It’s a real word dang it!
Right?! It wasn’t until it got pointed out to me and I had to run stuff through Word to fix something that I was like “what do you mean that’s not a word, it is too a bloody word!”
I also only recently discovered that “outwith” isn’t a word outside of Scotland…that might have been one of your revelations too but I can’t remember. Either way, the rest of English is missing out.
It’s fucking what now?
But…but it’s such a good word… what do people say instead? Outside? Without? … but they don’t have the same inherent meaning.
Oh well. Fuckit.
Sorry Phangs readers, but you’re about to get a crash course in learning Scots dialect. Hold onto yer bunnets.
how would someone use ‘outwith’, what’s it mean?
“Outwith the norm” or “outwith his expectations”.
Which I suppose “outside” would work, but it feels janky on my tongue to say that. I’ve always used outwith when talking about like thingy-things like experiences or perceptions, while outside is reserved for real physical things like “you’ve parked outside the line” or “he’s outside the house”, though I dare day there’s some folk use “outwith” for those too.
I’m pretty sure we do have that in US English, it’s just two separate words.
“out with the old, in with the new”
Out with and outwith have very different meanings though.
Out with implies getting rid of something.
Outwith means more… beyond the expected? I guess?