sie

See also: Sie, šie, się, and si'e

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English sien, from Old English sīgan (“to sink, descend”), from Proto-Germanic *sīganą, *sīhwaną (“to strain, drop”), from Proto-Indo-European *seyk- (“to pour, strain”). Cognate with Dutch zijgen (“to filter”), German seihen (“to strain, sieve”), Icelandic síga (“to lower”).

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /saɪ/
  • Rhymes: -aɪ

Verb

sie (third-person singular simple present sies, present participle sying, simple past and past participle sied)

  1. (intransitive) To sink; fall; drop.
  2. (intransitive) To fall, as in a swoon; faint.
  3. (intransitive, dialectal) To drop, as water; trickle.
  4. (transitive) To sift.
  5. (transitive, dialectal) To strain, as milk; filter.

Noun

sie (plural sies)

  1. A drop.

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Pronoun

sie (third person singular, gender-neutral, nominative case, accusative sir, possessive adjective hir, possessive noun hirs, reflexive hirself)

  1. (neologism) Gender-neutral (or multigendered) subject pronoun, grammatically equivalent to the gendered pronouns he and she, or singular they
    • 1993 September 24, Alex Martelli, "punishment vs ethics (was Re: Discipline my daughters)", in alt.sex.bondage, Usenet:
      If the child is about the intellectual equal of the parent, sie will eventually start holding hir own in discussions, […]
    • 2010 September 16, Jessica Freely, Amaranth and Ash‎, La Vergne: Lightning Source, →ISBN, page 101:
      "You must be Ash," sie said, hir voice a shade deeper than Amaranth's.
    • 2011 May 19, Ken Wickham, The Other Genders: Androgyne, Genderqueer, Non-Binary Gender Variant‎, CreateSpace, →ISBN, page 7:
      Sie may feel that hir actual identity of hir gender is supposed to be both/neither male or female, outside of gender, third gender, beyond gender, absence of gender, mixing gender, changing gender, or all genders.
    • 2011 August 16, Petra Kuppers, Disability Culture and Community Performance: Find a Strange and Twisted Shape‎, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, LCCN 2011012058, LCC PN1590.H36 K87 2011, page 18:
      When I asked hir about hir preferred self-identification in this scene, sie offered me this language, 'sie sharply performs the hotness of teasing all the audience from the edge-space of androgyny.'
Synonyms

See also

  • other attested and proposed gender-neutral pronouns

Anagrams

Chibcha

Noun

sie

  1. water

References

  • Comparative Chibchan Phonology (1981)

Finnish

Pronoun

sie (stem siu-)

  1. (personal, dialectal, including Kven) you (singular; in archaic English: thou).

Synonyms

Anagrams

German

Pronunciation

  • (standard) IPA(key): /ziː/
  • audio(file)
  • Rhymes: -iː
  • (colloquially in unstressed position) IPA(key): /zə/

Etymology 1

From Old High German siu; cognate with Gothic 𐍃𐌹 (si) and Old English sēo (“that one (f.)”).

Pronoun

sie f

  1. she
    Ist sie noch krank?
    Is she still sick?
    Das ist meine Katze. Sie heißt Lili.
    This is my cat. Her name is Lili.
  2. it (when the object/article/thing/animal etc., referred to, is feminine (die))
    Scheint die Sonne noch? Nein, sie ist schon runtergegangen.
    Is the sun still shining? No, it has already gone down.
Inflection

1Often capitalized, especially in letters

  • The genitive case ihrer is more and more rarely used in modern German.
  • While the genitive of personal pronouns does express ownership, it must not be confused with possessive pronouns. While possessive pronouns such as ihr are put in front of the noun they relate to and follow the inflection rules of adjectives, the genitive form of personal pronouns has only one form, which is not further inflected. Additionally, personal pronouns in the genitive can be put after the word they relate to.

Etymology 2

From Old High German sie (masculine plural), sio (feminine plural), siu (neuter plural).

Alternative forms

  • -se (enclitic; colloquial)

Pronoun

sie pl

  1. they; them
Inflection

1Often capitalized, especially in letters

Usage notes

  • In the colloquial speech of some areas, this pronoun is used only enclitically after a verb, as an ending /zə/. E.g. hamse, könnse. Stressed instances are replaced with the demonstrative pronoun die. This reflects a similar development for es/das.
  • While the genitive of personal pronouns does express ownership, it must not be confused with possessive pronouns. While possessive pronouns such as ihr are put in front of the noun they relate to and follow the inflection rules of adjectives, the genitive form of a personal pronoun has only one form, which is not further inflected. Additionally, personal pronouns in the genitive can be put after the word they relate to.

Anagrams

Further reading

  • sie in Duden online

Hunsrik

Alternative forms

  • sii (Portuguese based orthography)

Etymology 1

From Old High German siu; cognate with Gothic 𐍃𐌹 (si) and Old English sēo (“that one (f.)”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /siː/

Pronoun

sie

  1. she

Inflection

Etymology 2

From Old High German sie (masculine plural), sio (feminine plural), siu (neuter plural).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /siː/

Pronoun

sie

  1. they

Inflection

Further reading

Ingrian

Noun

sie

  1. binding

Karelian

Adverb

sie

  1. there

Pronoun

sie

(Stem: si-)

  1. (personal) you (singular)

Synonyms

Middle Dutch

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /siə/, /si/

Pronoun

sie

  1. Alternative form of si (both feminine singular and all plural)

Middle Low German

Pronunciation

  • Stem vowel: ê⁴
    • IPA(key): /siə/, /siɛ/

Pronoun

sie

  1. Alternative form of sê.

Old Saxon

Alternative forms

Pronoun

sie m, f

  1. she (accusative)
  2. they

Declension

Descendants

  • Low German: se
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.