他

Usage notes
Not to be confused with unrelated 也

Glyph origin
.

Corrupted form of, which is found in.

Etymology
Etymology not clear. Perhaps cognate with.

The modern sense of "he, she, it" only emerged after the Han period in colloquial passages, and displaced classical and  in mandarin dialects. 

The phonological development from Middle Chinese was irregular. The expected reflex is tuō, which is sometimes used in literary contexts for the classical "other" sense, but in most Mandarin dialects it is read like tā.

Definitions

 * 1)  he; him; she; her
 * 2) other; another
 * 1) other; another
 * 1) other; another
 * 1) other; another
 * 1) other; another
 * 1) other; another
 * 1) other; another
 * 1) other; another
 * 1) other; another

Usage notes

 * Originally gender-neutral before the 1910s, when the character was coined; now usually refers to males (also occasionally refers to females).
 * However, is only a written distinction; they are all still pronounced as tā.
 * This term can refer to a person of unknown gender or there is no need to mention gender of the person referred to, while  is also used; see also Internet slang.
 * This term can refer to a person of unknown gender or there is no need to mention gender of the person referred to, while  is also used; see also Internet slang.

Synonyms
Most of the words in the table below are gender-neutral in spoken form.

Noun

 * 1) another, other, some other

Idioms

 * : “there isn't anything else” → “specifically what I want to say is...”
 * : “extend the involvement (entanglement) to others” → involve others in trouble
 * : “an example not seen in others” → incomparable
 * : “to be led astray by others' words”