pronoun

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pronoun, also pronoune,^[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman pronoun, recorded in Anglo-Norman from 1338,^[3][4] which the OED takes as formed from the elements of pro- and noun after Latin prōnōmen (“pronoun”).^[3] Barnhart, Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the ODE instead treat the English word as formed from pro- and noun after pronom and the Latin word,^[5][6][7][8] while Etymonline derives it from Old French pronon, pronom, and directly from Latin, with the form altered to match noun,^[9] and Merriam-Webster from the Middle French word.^[10] The OED records pronon in Old French from the second half of the 13th century.^[3] The Latin word is formed from prō (“in place of”) and nōmen (“name, noun”),^[9][2][10] or from the phrase prō nōmine (“instead of a noun”),^[11] and Etymonline traces nōmen to Proto-Indo-European *no-men- (“name”).^[9] It is a loan translation of Ancient Greek ἀντωνυμία (antōnumía, “pronoun”),^[3][11][6] a word related to antonym.^[3] The Latin word also gave Occitan pronom, Spanish pronombre, Portuguese pronome, Italian pronome and German Pronomen.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A word used instead of a noun: the OED's first quotation is from about 1414, in a Middle English grammatical text.^[3][12] Barnhart dates the word to about 1450, in a grammar,^[5] and Etymonline to the mid 15th century.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its grammatical sense since the 15th century.^[3][12] Johnson (1755) quoted Clarke's Latin grammar: I, thou, he; we, ye, they are used instead of the proper names of persons, and so were called pronouns, as though they were not nouns themselves.^[13] Weekley notes that Palsgrave used the word in imitation of the French.^[14] Since 1977 the word has also meant a third-person pronoun by which a person chooses to be referred to, to show their gender identity, often in the plural (my pronouns).^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1414 – a word standing for a noun.^[3] Barnhart dates the word to about 1450.^[5]
• 1977 – a third-person pronoun a person chooses to show their gender identity.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A word that stands in place of a noun or noun phrase and refers to someone or something already mentioned or clear from the context, such as I, you, she, this or who.^{[10][15][3][7]}
2. A third-person pronoun by which a person chooses to be referred to, to show their gender identity; usually in the plural: Her email signature lists her pronouns.^[3]

Word family

• adjective pronoun
• indefinite pronoun
• personal pronoun
• possessive pronoun
• reciprocal pronoun
• reflexive pronoun
• relative pronoun

Related words

• pronominal
• noun
• name
• nominal
• antonym
• pro-

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins