Etymologically
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someone

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 14 October 2026 at 21:42. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈsʌm.wʌn/[1]

Etymology

It is a compound, from Middle English sum (“some”) + oon (“one”), Middle English sum oon;[2][3][4] see some and one.[5][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A certain person, some person not named or not known (about 1305, written as two words).[8][4][2]

Semantic evolution

The phrase was written as two words, sum on, from about 1300,[4] and is not recorded as one word before the mid-19th century (by 1848).[7][4] The sense “a person of importance”, as in he really thinks he's someone, is a later development that the dictionaries list as a separate sense.[5][9] Someone else in the sense of “a romantic rival” is from 1914, a few years after somebody else in the same sense (1911).[4][8]

Timeline

  • c. 1305 – sum on, some person.[8][4]
  • 1848 – written as one word.[4]
  • 1914 – someone else, a romantic rival.[4]

Modern meaning

Pronoun

  1. Some person, unknown or not named; somebody.

Noun

  1. A person of importance or authority: keen to be someone.

Usage notes

Collins notes that someone and somebody are interchangeable, as are everyone and everybody and no-one and nobody.[10]

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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  6. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  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. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  9. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins