Etymology

-'s

Today it means: A possessive marker, indicating that an object belongs to the noun or noun phrase bearing the marker. Full definition →

Middle English -s ← Old English -es ← Proto-Germanic *-as
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-'s · suffix1

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*-as
  2. Old English · inherited from-es“-'s”
  3. Middle English · inherited from-s
  4. English today-'s

From Middle English -s, -es, from Old English -es (“-'s”, masculine and neuter genitive singular ending), from Proto-Germanic *-as, *-is (masculine and neuter genitive singular ending). The apostrophe was added under the false belief that it was a contraction of English his, and retained to distinguish it from the plural. Cognate with Dutch -s, -es (“-'s”), German -s, -es (“-'s”), Danish -s, -es (“-'s”), Swedish -s (“-'s”), Norwegian -s (“-'s”), Icelandic -s (“-'s”).

-'s · suffix2

Equivalent to -s, with addition of apostrophe.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.