thyselves

English

Etymology

From thy +‎ -selves, apparently by analogy with yourselves.

Pronoun

thyselves

1. (pseudo-archaic, nonstandard) Yourselves; a plural of the archaic pronoun thyself.

   Synonym: thineselves

   • a. 1982, Bobbi Morris (?), quoted in Steven M. Tipton, Getting Saved from the Sixties: Moral Meaning in Conversion and Cultural Change, University of California Press (1982), →ISBN, page 52:

     Therefore I call unto thee, repent before me. Humble thyselves. Humble thyselves before me that I may forgive thy sin.

   • 1993, Edward James Blakely and Sumner M. Sharp, Planners, Heal Thyselves: Planning Education, Educators, and Practitioners in the Next Century,^[1] University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Urban and Regional Planning.

     [see title]

   • 1999, Tom Hirschfeld, Business Dad: How Good Businessmen Can Make Great Fathers (and Vice Versa), Little, Brown and Company, published 2000, →ISBN, page 62:

     Know Thyselves

Usage notes

• When the pronoun thou was in common use, it was specifically singular (and often specifically informal). However, in current use, where thou survives as an archaism, this distinction has been mostly forgotten. Therefore, many speakers treat thou simply as an archaic synonym of you, enabling thyselves to be coined as a pseudo-archaic synonym of yourselves.