our

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English oure, also ure,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English ūre (“of us, our”),^{[5][6][7][8][3][9]} used as the genitive plural of wē (“we”) and, with adjective endings, as the possessive.^[6][10][8] The Old English form is a variant of ūser,^[8][3] which comes from earlier *unser with the loss of the nasal before s, a change shared with Old Saxon and Old Frisian.^[8] It is cognate with Old Frisian ūse, Old Saxon ūsa, Old Dutch unsa, Dutch onze, Old High German unsēr, German unser, Old Norse várr and Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍃𐌰𐍂 (unsar),^[6][8] all from the Germanic base of us.^{[6][8][11][2]} Orel and Köbler reconstruct it as Proto-Germanic *unseraz, which Orel explains as that base with a comparative suffix,^[12][13] while Etymonline and Ayto give the base as *ons.^[14][11] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary take this further to Proto-Indo-European *nes-, the oblique stem of the first person plural pronoun, the source of Latin nōs (“we”) and noster (“our”).^[14][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The genitive "of us": Beowulf, dated by Barnhart to about 725.^[8][6] The possessive "belonging to us" appears in early Old English, in King Ælfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Old English used one word for both the genitive of the pronoun ("of us") and the possessive ("our"), which could stand with a noun or alone.^[6] The genitive use faded, surviving in Middle English only as the complement of another pronoun and last recorded in 1522, and the predicative use ("that is our") died out by 1641,^[6] as ours, from about 1303 in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne, took its place.^[8][7] Middle English spellings include oure, probably before 1200 in Layamon, and our, probably before 1300;^[8] Chaucer has oure 557 times and our 48 times.^[15] A monarch's our for "my" goes back to Old English, in a charter of William I.^[6] From 1588 it could mark someone or something under discussion, shared between a writer and readers,^[6] from 1827 it stood familiarly before the name of a relative or friend,^[6] and it could stand playfully for "your" from 1847.^[6] Johnson (1755) defines it simply as pertaining or belonging to us.^[16] English dialects have many forms of the word, among them ar in Yorkshire and Lancashire, eawer in Lancashire and oor in Scotland.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 725 – ūre, genitive, of us, in Beowulf.^[8][6]
• Old English – possessive, belonging to us.^[6][10]
• Old English – used by a monarch for my.^[6]
• probably before 1200 – the form oure, in Layamon.^[8]
• probably before 1300 – the form our.^[8]
• 1522 – last record of the genitive, of us.^[6]
• 1588 – of the person or thing in question, shared by a writer and readers.^[6]
• 1592 – referring to each member of a group that includes the speaker.^[6]
• 1641 – last record of the predicative use, ours.^[6]
• 1827 – before a person's name, of a relative or friend.^[6]
• 1847 – used playfully for your.^[6]

Meanings

Determiner

1. Belonging to or associated with the speaker and one or more other people: We sold our car in March.^[18][2][6]
2. Belonging to or associated with people in general: Our ancestors learned to use fire.^[18][6]
3. Used by a monarch for my, and by an editor or other writer: It is our royal pleasure.^[18][6]
4. Of the person or thing being spoken about, shared with the listener or reader: Our hero now escapes through a window.^[6]
5. (dialect) Before a person's name, belonging to the speaker's family or circle: Our Danny is getting married.^[18][6]
6. (informal) Used playfully or sarcastically for your: And how are our knees today?^[18][6]

Pronoun

1. (obsolete, Old English–1522) The genitive of we; of us.^[6][19][10]
2. (obsolete, Old English–1641) That which belongs to us; ours.^[6][19]

Related words

• we
• us
• ours
• ourselves
• ourn
• nostrum

Usage notes

The OED gives British /ˈaʊə/ and /ɑː/, and American /ˈaʊ(ə)r/ and /ɑr/.^[6] In modern English our is only the possessive used with a noun, and the form standing alone is ours.^[6] The Shorter Oxford notes that it is now also classed as a determiner.^[19] Dictionary.com lists it among words confused with are and hour.^[20]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
13. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
14. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
19. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
20. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House