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ons

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ons1 us, our

Pronunciation

  • /ɔns/[1]
  • Netherlands: [õs][1]

Forms

ons (personal pronoun, object form of wij); possessive ons, inflected onze[1]

Etymology

The pronoun is inherited from Middle Dutch ons, inherited from Old Dutch uns, inherited from Proto-Germanic *uns (“us”).[2][1] The same word is Old Saxon ūs, Old High German uns (modern German uns), Old Frisian ūs (modern West Frisian ús), Old English ūs (modern English us), Old Norse oss and Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍃 (uns).[2][3] Many Dutch dialects have the North Sea Germanic form without /n/ and with a lengthened vowel, as Old Saxon, Frisian and English do.[2] Kloeke showed that such forms survive as relics from Holland to Flanders, while in the Saxon and Limburg dialects they are more likely to be recent.[4]

The possessive grew out of the genitive of the personal pronoun.[5][6] It is onse, Old Dutch unsa, as Old Saxon ūsa and ūse; unsēr (modern unser), ūser, ūre (modern English our) and 𐌿𐌽𐍃𐌰𐍂 (unsar) add a suffix with /r/, from Proto-Germanic *unseraz (“our”).[2][4][3][7] The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal thinks the possessive was at first not inflected at all.[5]

The Germanic stem goes back to Proto-Indo-European *n̥s, the zero grade of the stem seen in Latin nōs (“we, us”), Sanskrit नस् (nas, “us”) and Albanian na (“we”), which was originally the stem of the cases other than the nominative.[4][3][8] The same form underlies Hittite anz- (“us”).[2] A longer Proto-Indo-European *n̥smé gave Ancient Greek ἡμεῖς (hēmeîs, “we”), Aeolic ἄμμε (ámme, “us”), and Sanskrit अस्मे (asmé, “to us”).[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Wachtendonck Psalms of the 10th century, Old Dutch uns is the object form, as in uuaren ouir uns “they had the upper hand over us”, and the possessive appears in got hulpere unsa “God our helper”.[2][9] The Middle Dutch dictionary of the 13th century has the possessive onse from Limburg around 1200, and the personal pronoun ons from Ghent in 1236.[10][2]

Semantic evolution

In early Middle Dutch the nominative of the possessive was onse in all three genders, and onse with neuter nouns is still found in the 17th century; on the model of mijn and zijn, an uninflected ons spread to masculine, feminine and plural nouns already in the Middle Ages.[5] In the modern language onze stands before common-gender and plural nouns and ons before neuter ones, and 16th-century writers sometimes used onser after German unser.[5] Old case forms survive in te onzent “at our house” and om onzent wil “for our sake”, where a /t/ was added.[5] Onze Lieve Heer and Onze Lieve Vrouw name God and the Virgin Mary.[5]

In Afrikaans ons has replaced the subject form we, but standard Dutch does not use it as a subject except in a few phrases, such as ons kent ons and the originally Zeeland saying ons bin zunig.[2] The pronoun passed into Negerhollands, where ons served for every case, number and gender, into Berbice Dutch (ensi “we, us”), Skepi Dutch and Chinese Malay.[11][1]

Timeline

  • 901–1000 – Old Dutch uns and the possessive unsa appear in the Wachtendonck Psalms.[2][9]
  • c. 1100 – Nu saga uns “now tell us” in the Leiden Willeram.[2]
  • 1200 – Middle Dutch possessive onse in Limburg.[10]
  • 1236 – The personal pronoun ons in Ghent.[10][2]
  • 1254 – Med onsen konegheleken zeghele “with our royal seal”.[2]
  • 1688 – Onse Godt dien wy eeren “our God whom we honour”.[5]
  • 1867 – Ten onzent “at our house”.[5]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. us, the object form of wij: Ze hebben ons gisteren gebeld.[12][1]
  2. ourselves, used reflexively: We vergissen ons soms.[1]

Determiner

  1. our, before a neuter singular noun: ons huis; before other nouns onze: onze kinderen.[1][5]
  2. (predicative) Ours: Die tuin is van ons.[5]

Word family

  • onszelf
  • Onze-Lieve-Vrouw
  • Onze-Lieve-Heer

ons2 100 grams

Pronunciation

  • /ɔns/[1]
  • Netherlands: [õs][1]

Forms

ons n (plural onsen or onzen, diminutive onsje n)[1]

Etymology

The weight is inherited from Middle Dutch unce (also once, onse), borrowed from Latin uncia (“a twelfth of a pound, of a foot etc.”), probably by way of Old French once (“small weight”), recorded around 1160.[2][1][9] Franck and Van Wijk leave open whether it came through French or directly from Latin, and De Vries allows a French source for the Middle Dutch form ⟨onse⟩.[3][4] The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal doubts that the word came directly from the Latin and explains the neuter gender by analogy with pond and lood.[5] The Latin noun developed from an older *oinikiā, a derivative of *oinos (“unit”), which became ūnus (“one”); see een.[2]

The Latin word was also borrowed, in some cases through French, as Middle Low German unse (whence Swedish uns), Old High German unza (modern German Unze), Old Frisian enze and Old English unce, ynce (modern English ounce and English inch).[2][4][13] The modern West Frisian ûns was borrowed from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German.[2][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle Dutch unce first appears in 1240 in the Limburg glossary known as Bernardus, as a weight, the twelfth part of a pound.[2][9]

Semantic evolution

Through most of its history an ons was the twelfth part of a pound, sometimes the sixteenth, and the apothecaries' weight kept that division.[2][5] When the metric system came in, the name passed to a tenth of a kilogram, while pond passed to half a kilogram, so that a pound is now five ons.[2] Belgian Dutch no longer uses the word except in sayings.[2] From early on it also meant a very small amount, as in a 1644 line saying that a whole group would not make up een half once of one man's courage.[5] The diminutive onsken is found in 1483.[2]

The proverb beter een ons geluk dan een pond wijsheid “better an ounce of luck than a pound of wisdom” is in Harrebomée's collection of 1861.[5][12] The word passed into Indonesian (ons, on), Jakarta Malay, Papiamentu (òns), Surinamese Javanese (os) and Japanese (onsu).[11][1]

Timeline

  • 1240 – Middle Dutch unce in the Limburg glossary Bernardus.[2][9]
  • 1300–50 – Wel III uncen “a good three ounces”.[2]
  • 1351 – 4 oncen wegende “weighing 4 ounces”.[2]
  • 1483 – The diminutive onsken.[2]
  • 1644 – Een half once used of a tiny amount.[5]
  • 1861 – Harrebomée records beter een ons geluk dan een pond wijsheid.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Netherlands) A weight of 100 grams: Doe maar twee ons kaas.[12][1][2]
  2. (historical) An ounce, a twelfth or sixteenth of a pond.[2][5]

Usage notes

Ons kent ons means “we know what to expect of each other”.[12] The phrase dan kun je wachten tot je een ons weegt means that one will wait in vain.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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 Philippa, Marlies; Debrabandere, Frans; Quak, Arend; Schoonheim, Tanneke; Sijs, Nicoline van der (2003–2009), Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands, 4 vols., Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press; online via etymologiebank.nl
  3. ^ a b c d Franck, Johannes; Wijk, Nicolaas van (1912), Franck's Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal, 2nd ed., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff
  4. ^ a b c d e f Vries, Jan de (1971), Nederlands etymologisch woordenboek, Leiden: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Vries, Matthias de; Winkel, L. A. te, et al. (1882–1998), Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, 29 vols., 's-Gravenhage / Leiden: Nijhoff / Sijthoff / SDU; supplement 2001; gtb.ivdnt.org
  6. ^ Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org
  7. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  8. ^ Vries, Jan de; Tollenaere, Félicien de (2004), Etymologisch woordenboek: onze woorden, hun oorsprong en ontwikkeling, 23rd ed., Utrecht: Het Spectrum, p. 270
  9. ^ a b c d e Sijs, Nicoline van der (2001), Chronologisch woordenboek: de ouderdom en herkomst van onze woorden en betekenissen, Amsterdam / Antwerpen: Veen
  10. ^ a b c Pijnenburg, W. J. J., et al. (2001), Vroegmiddelnederlands woordenboek: woordenboek van het Nederlands van de dertiende eeuw in hoofdzaak op basis van het Corpus-Gysseling, Leiden: Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie; gtb.ivdnt.org
  11. ^ a b c Sijs, Nicoline van der (2010), Nederlandse woorden wereldwijd, Den Haag: Sdu; with additions from the Uitleenwoordenbank (2015)
  12. ^ a b c d e Van Dale Groot woordenboek hedendaags Nederlands (2014), Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Uitgevers
  13. ^ Haeringen, C. B. van (1936), Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal: Supplement, 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff