nos

Forms

nōs (genitive nostrum or nostrī, dative and ablative nōbīs); plural of ego^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *nōs (“we, us”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *nōs, originally the stressed accusative.^[1] The old nominative ⟨*wei(s)⟩ was replaced by the accusative, apparently already in Proto-Italic.^[1] The genitive ⟨nostrum⟩ was first the genitive plural of noster; after Plautus it was largely replaced by ⟨nostrī⟩.^[1]

Cognate with Old Irish sní (“we”), Hittite anzāš (“us”), Ancient Greek νῶϊ (nôï, “we two”), Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍃 (uns) and English us.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Naevius on;^[1] Köbler's first source is Ennius.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Nōs means “we, us”; it is also used indefinitely, for people in general, and by a single speaker or writer of himself, the “we” of formal or modest style.^[2] Of the genitives, nostrī is usually objective and nostrum partitive (nēmō nostrum “none of us”); Plautus and Terence also have nostrōrum and nostrārum.^[2][4]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – First found in Naevius.^[1]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: nōs sumus “we're alone now”.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: nōs, nōs, dīcō apertē, cōnsulēs dēsumus “it is we, we the consuls, who fail”.^[4][3]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. we, us.^[2][4]
2. We (people in general).^[2]
3. We, I (of the speaker or writer alone).^[2]

Word family

• noster
• nostrās
• nōbīscum

Related words

• ego
• vōs
• English us

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press