One (word)

One is a common word in the English language. It can mean either the number 1 or be used as a pronoun.

Etymology

The Old English "án" is in Old Frisian "ân," "ên," Old Saxon "ên" (Middle Dutch, Dutch "een"), Old High German (Middle High German, German) "ein," Old Norse "einn":–"ein-r" (Danish "een," Sw. "en"), Gothic "ain-s":–Old Teutonic "*ain-oz":–pre-Teutonic "*oinos" = Latin "ūnus" (Old Latin "oinos"); Old Irish "óen," Old Slavic "inu," Lithuanian "venas" one; cf. Greek "oἶνoς, oἴνη," ace. Old English "án" became in regular course in south and midland dialect "on," exemplified before 1200. By the 15th century, "on," "oon," in southwest and west, had developed (through "on," "uon," "uön," "won," "wun") an initial "w" (cf. the southwest "wuk," "wuts" = "oak," "oats"), which only occasionally appears in the spelling, but is now the standard pronunciation. The first orthoepist to refer to it was apparently Jones 1701: earlier grammarians, down to Christopher Cooper, 1685, give to "one" the sound that it has in "alone," "atone," and "only"; Thomas Dyche in 1710 has IPAEng|ɒn beside IPA|/wɒn/. In the north, "ān" was retained in Middle English; but through the narrowing of the originally long "ā" to IPA|/æː/, /ɛː/, /eː/, /ɛə/, /ɪə/ "ân" has sunk in dialectal utterance through "ane," to "eane," "eän," "yan," "yen," the development of IPA|/jɛn/ in the north being the counterpart of that of IPA|/wʌn/ in the south. In Old English, "án" had the full adjective inflexions, definite and indefinite, remains of which persisted in the south to ca. 1300, and in Kent still later; but, in north and midland England, the uninflected "ān," "ōn," with the definite form "āne," "ōne" (Old English "ána," "áne"), is found in the accusative and dative, as well as the nominative by 1200. Already also, "ān," "ōn" were reduced before a consonant to "ā," "ō" ("oo"), which did not die out till the 16th century.

In the north the separation of "ân" and "â" was more permanent; at the present day in Scots the full form "ane," "eane," etc., is only used absolutely or in the predicate, "ae," "eae," is the attributive form before consonants and vowels alike: "ae day," "ae yeir," "we hae ane"; so in north English dialects with "yà" and "yàn". From the early "an," "a," pronounced proclitically without stress, arose the “indefinite article” "an, a". In the northern dialect the numeral and article were long written alike, the stress or emphasis alone distinguishing them; in 16th century Scots both were written "ane". By more or less permanent coalescence of a preceding "thet," the collocations "thet ane," "thet one," "thet a," "thet o," became "the tane," "the tone," "the ta," "the to".

One as a pronoun