entry
it's
/ɪts/Contraction of “it is” or “it has”
From O.English, from Proto-Germanic and Proto-Indo-European it (this).
Word Ancestry
Before English speakers had a handy little word for an unnamed thing, Old English used hit—a neuter pronoun meaning roughly “this one.” Its deepest ancestor, reconstructed as PIE *ḱe, pointed toward something nearby: “here,” “this,” the linguistic equivalent of tapping an object on the table. The initial h eventually disappeared in weak, unstressed speech, leaving it; by the time English reached its modern form, ’s could compress “it is” or “it has” into the brisk little package it's. That apostrophe matters: it's means “it is” or “it has,” while its—without the apostrophe—owns things, a distinction that has been tripping up writers for centuries even though the two forms sound identical.
The Story
Before English speakers had a handy little word for an unnamed thing, Old English used hit—a neuter pronoun meaning roughly “this one.” Its deepest ancestor, reconstructed as PIE *ḱe, pointed toward something nearby: “here,” “this,” the linguistic equivalent of tapping an object on the table. The initial h eventually disappeared in weak, unstressed speech, leaving it; by the time English reached its modern form, ’s could compress “it is” or “it has” into the brisk little package it's. That apostrophe matters: it's means “it is” or “it has,” while its—without the apostrophe—owns things, a distinction that has been tripping up writers for centuries even though the two forms sound identical.
Kin & Kindred
From 'it'·this; the thing or animal referred to
Derived Terms
English words from this root