an

Forms

ān (masculine accusative singular ānne, ǣnne; weak āna “alone”).^[2][1]

• Anglian accusative enne beside West Saxon ǣnne.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *ain, from Proto-Germanic *ainaz (“one”).^[1][4] The Proto-Germanic numeral survives as Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (ains), Old Norse einn, Old Frisian ān, Old Saxon ēn and Old High German ein.^[4][5]

Orel equates it with Latin ūnus and Old Irish óen, and relates it further to Ancient Greek οἶος (oîos, “alone”);^[5][6] Holthausen adds οἴνη (oínē, “the one on a die”).^[5][6] Kroonen reconstructs the Indo-European form as Proto-Indo-European *Hoi-Hn-o-, Wiktionary as Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos (“one”).^[4][1]

The long vowel comes from the Germanic diphthong /ai/, which became /ɑː/ in Old English.^[7] The masculine accusative ⟨ǣnne⟩ has i-umlaut of that vowel;^[3] Anglian ⟨enne⟩ shows it shortened and raised before the nasal.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in the bounds of a charter of King Æthelwulf dated 846, in a single sheet of the mid-ninth century that some have held to be contemporary and others doubtful: the boundary runs be ðæm hagan on anne beorge “along the hedge to a hill”.^[8][9] The mid-ninth-century gloss of the Vespasian Psalter has the numeral in Psalm 108:13, in cneorisse anre “in one generation”, for Latin “in generatione una”.^[10][9]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller set out three main uses: the numeral “one”, in the plural “each, every one”;^[2] “alone, only, sole”, mostly in the weak form āna; and “a certain one”, the Latin “quidam”.^[2] Klaeber finds all three in Beowulf, with the sense “unique, peerless” in þæt wæs ān cyning “that was a peerless king”.^[11] Bosworth and Toller note that ān is seldom used as an indefinite article, and the Supplement gives examples such as Hū mon ǣnne mon scyndan scyle “how one should urge a man” from the Pastoral Care.^[2][12] Sweet adds phrases such as ān and ān “one by one” and on ān “continually; at once”.^[13] In glosses it renders Latin “unus”, “solus”, “singulus” and “quidam”.^[14]

It gave Middle English on, now English one, and its unstressed form became the indefinite article English an, recorded in the twelfth century.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 846 – on anne beorge “to a hill” in the bounds of Æthelwulf's charter for South Hams.^[8][9]
• s. ix med. – in cneorisse anre “in one generation” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[10][9]
• 890×897 – ǣnne mon “a man”, with the sense of the article, in the Pastoral Care.^[17][12]
• s. x/xi – þæt wæs ān cyning “that was a peerless king” in Beowulf.^[18][11]
• c. 1175 – Middle English an as the number one in the Ormulum.^[15]

Meanings

Numeral

1. one.^[2][11][14]
2. in the plural: each, every one, all.^[2][19]

Adjective

1. alone, only, sole; mostly in the weak form āna.^[2][11]
2. unique, without an equal.^[2][11]

Pronoun

1. a certain one, someone.^[2][11]

Article

1. (uncommon) a, an, as an indefinite article.^[12][1]

Adverb

1. only.^[20][13]

Word family

• ǣniġ
• nān
• ānlīċ
• ānfeald
• ānlēpiġ
• ānhorn
• endleofan

Descendants

• Middle English on (→ English one; English an; English a)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 37
3. ^ a b c Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 5.79
4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 11
5. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 9
6. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 4
7. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 5.7
8. ^ a b The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 298
9. ^ a b c d Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
10. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 329
11. ^ a b c d e f Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. ān
12. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 36
13. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 32
14. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. ān
15. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
16. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
17. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
18. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 344
19. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 19
20. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 38