'em

pronouncommon in dialogue

//əm//
/[əm]/
/[m̩]/
/[ɪm]/
/[ɛm]/

Them (now only in unstressed position).

pronoun

1
Them (now only in unstressed position).
Some are become great, ſome atcheeues greatneſſe, and ſome haue greatneſſe thruſt vppon em.
Toute la Chine eſt diviſée en ſeize Provinces qui valent mieux chacune que de grands Royaumes. Il y en a dix vers le Midi ſçavoir Yunnan , Quanſi, Canton, Fuquiem, Chequiam, Nankin , Kiamſi , Huqüam, Suſcüem & Quicheu.
We cannot reasonably ſuppoſe that Adam, who was ſo univerſally Skill'd in the Natures of all Plants, ſhould have been ignorant of their Vulnerary Qualities: Or that he would not employ this his Skill in endeavouring to cure Wounds, or Hurts, when any of his new-planted Stock had the Misfortune te receive 'em.
Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester, same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting ’em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.

Etymology

From earlier hem, from Middle English hem, from Old English heom (“them”, dative) of hie, originally a dative plural form but in Middle English coming to serve as an accusative plural as well. Cognate with Dutch hun (“them”), German ihnen (“them”). Now often treated as a colloquial apheretic form of them, which however derives from Old Norse rather than Old English.

'bout · about.'cause · Apheretic form of because.

'em · Them (now only in unstressed position).

'kay · Apheretic form of okay.'ll · Will, shall (marking the future tense or other modal sense).'m · Am, used especially in I'm.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.