Etymologically
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everyone

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈev.ri.wʌn/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English everichon,[2] a compound, from English every + one.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Every person: about 1200.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The compound has been written both as one word and as two.[4] Although it takes a singular verb, it has long served as the antecedent of a plural pronoun, as in Iris Murdoch's “Everyone has had their adventures”.[4][5]

Timeline

  • c. 1200 – everichon, every person.[3][2]

Modern meaning

Pronoun

  1. Every person; everybody.

Usage notes

Collins notes that everyone and everybody are interchangeable, but that everyone must be kept apart from every one, two words, which refers to each member of a group: every one of them.[6] Longman advises a singular verb (everyone admires her) and all of us rather than everyone of us.[5]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (2009), 5th ed., Harlow: Pearson Longman
  6. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins