us

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English us, also ous and os,^[2][3] inherited from Old English ūs, the accusative and dative of we,^[4][5][2][6] from Proto-West Germanic *uns, from Proto-Germanic *uns (“us”).^[1][7][8] Kroonen explains that this oblique form, or *unse, went with the Proto-Germanic nominative *wīz.^[9] Old English also had a separate accusative ūsic outside West Saxon, Northumbrian ūsih and ūsig, as in Old High German unsih;^[3][10] the OED takes it as modelled on singular accusatives such as mec,^[3] and Kroonen as carrying a West Germanic suffix *-ike.^[9] North and East Germanic instead added *-iz to make a dative, the source of Old Norse øss and of the Gothic dative.^[9]

The Old English word lost its n and lengthened its vowel, as did Old Frisian ūs, Old Saxon ūs and oss,^[5][1] and the long vowel was lost again in Middle English, because the word was unstressed.^[1] The nasal survives in Dutch ons, uns, German uns and in Gothic.^[5][4][3] Beyond Germanic, Hoad, Kroonen and Orel derive the form from Proto-Indo-European *n̥s,^[7][9][11] the reduced grade of *nes-,^[7][4] which is the base of Latin nōs (“we, us”), Welsh ni (“we, us”) and Old Irish ni (“we, us”),^[5][4][11] and the OED also connects Ancient Greek ἄμμες (ámmes), from an extended zero grade.^[3] Barnhart writes the root with a long vowel, and also as *nōs-.^[5] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *n̥swé, an alteration of *n̥smé,^[1] and the OED, citing Ringe, notes that the ancestor of the Germanic word probably took over the suffix of the second person plural pronoun.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

As the object of a verb or preposition, direct and indirect: before 830, according to Barnhart,^[5] and in the OED first in the early Old English Vespasian Psalter, which has bledsade usic for Latin benedixit nos.^[3] Bosworth–Toller quotes Matthew 6:13 as ne gelǽd ðú ús on costnunge, ac álýs ús of yfele.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The single form us serves as direct and indirect object, originally accusative and dative.^[3] Already in Old English a ruler could use it of himself and an author could use it for an impersonal tone,^[3] and it could mean "ourselves", a use the Shorter Oxford calls archaic and dialectal except in colloquial American English, as in Shakespeare's "Come, shall we go and kill us venison".^[3][12] Chaucer has it 558 times, and Gower has ous 81 times out of 82.^[13] From 1616 sailors used it for their own ship.^[3]

Since the late 15th century us has also taken over from we as a subject, the OED says: first with a noun in apposition (1490), then standing alone (1562), after as and than (1620), in the predicate (1807) and in clauses with and (1847).^[3] Alone as a subject it is now regional, in England, Scotland and the United States.^[3] The use for "me" is recorded from 1828, in regional and colloquial speech, usually after give.^[3][12] English dialects spelled the pronoun in many ways, among them huz and hiz in Scotland and uz in the north.^[14][3] In the 20th century it became an adjective for what suits a group (1940),^[3] and the contrast us and them is recorded from 1953.^[3]

Timeline

• before 830 – object form of we.^[5] The OED's first quotations are from the Vespasian Psalter, in early Old English.^[3]
• Old English – used by a ruler of himself; used by an author for an impersonal tone; reflexively, ourselves.^[3]
• 1388 – Scots, as subject, used by a sovereign (obsolete by 1535).^[3]
• 1490 – as subject, with a noun or numeral in apposition.^[3]
• 1562 – as subject, standing alone.^[3]
• 1616 – the speaker's own vessel.^[3]
• 1620 – after as and than.^[3]
• 1807 – in the predicate.^[3]
• 1828 – me, to me.^[3]
• 1848 – northern English, as a possessive adjective, our.^[3]
• 1940 – suited to our tastes or personality.^[3]
• 1953 – paired with them, as in us and them.^[3]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. The objective form of we, as the direct object of a verb: The guide met us at the gate.^[15][16][3]
2. As the indirect object of a verb or the object of a preposition: They sent us a map of the town.^[15][3]
3. People in general: The figures show us how the climate has changed.^[16]
4. (informal) Instead of we, after be, as and than: They're older than us.^[15][17][3]
5. (informal) Me; to me: Lend us a pound.^[16][17][3]
6. Used instead of me by a monarch or an editor.^[16][3]
7. (chiefly American, informal) Ourselves: We bought us a used truck.^[16][17][12]
8. (regional) As the subject of a verb: Us'll be late.^[3][12]
9. us and them: a contrast between people like oneself and others, especially those in authority.^[3][12]

Adjective

1. Suited to or typical of our tastes or personality: That flat just isn't us.^[3]
2. (northern English) Our.^[3]

Word family

• usward

Related words

• we
• our
• ours
• ourselves

Usage notes

After be and after as and than, us is the informal choice, and we is still generally preferred in formal use.^[15][3] The strong form /ʌs/ is used mainly for contrast or emphasis, and the weak form when unstressed, even at the end of a phrase.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ 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 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
11. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ 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)
15. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
18. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press