mid-15c. in northern dialect, standard from 1540s, alteration of Middle English tham-self, emphatic plural pronoun, also reciprocal pronoun (14c.); see them + self, with self, originally an inflected adjective, treated as a noun with a meaning "person" and pluralized. Displacing Old English heom selfum (dative). Themself returned late 20c. as some writers took to replacing himself with gender-neutral everyone, anyone, etc.
双语例句
1. These large institutions make — and change—the rules to suit themselves.
这些大机构总是随意制定规定，而且说变就变。
来自柯林斯例句
2. People will work themselves up into a state about anything.
人们总会沉不住气，为任何事感到担忧。
来自柯林斯例句
3. In many respects Asian women see themselves as equal to their men.
在很多方面，亚洲女性都认为自己和丈夫是平等的。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The small British crowd roared themselves hoarse, waving their Union Jacks.
一小群英国人挥舞着国旗，吼得嗓子都沙哑了。
来自柯林斯例句
5. Those people who took up weapons to defend themselves are political prisoners.
