on

on · adjective, adverb, preposition, verb¹

1. Proto-Indo-European*h₂en-
2. Proto-Germanic*an
3. Proto-West Germanic*ana
4. Old Englishon
5. Middle Englishon
6. English todayon

From Middle English on, from Old English on, an (“on, upon, onto, in, into”), from Proto-West Germanic *ana, from Proto-Germanic *ana (“on, at”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂en- (“on, onto”). Cognates Cognate with Yola a, an, ana, on (“on”), Saterland Frisian an (“on; at”), West Frisian oan (“on; to, towards”), Cimbrian aan, å (“on, onto”), Dutch aan (“on; at”), Low German an (“on; at, to”), German an (“at, in; on”), Luxembourgish un (“on; at, to”), Yiddish אָן (on, “on, onward”), Danish, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish å (“on”), Elfdalian ą̊ (“on”), Faroese and Icelandic á (“in; on”), Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌰 (ana, “at, on”); also Umbrian 𐌀𐌌- (am-), 𐌀𐌍- (an-, “up, upon”), Ancient Greek ἀνά (aná, “on, upon”) (whence Greek ανά (aná, “by, through, per”)), Albanian në (“in; on”), Latvian no (“from; out of; for; of; with”), Lithuanian nuo (“from, off; for, of”), Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, and Ukrainian на (na, “on”), Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Slovene na (“on”), Serbo-Croatian на, na (“on”), Old Armenian ան- (an-, “at, on, unto”); and from Old Norse upp á: Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Swedish på (“on”), Norwegian Nynorsk paa, på (“on”), see upon.

on · preposition²

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*ḗnu“without”
2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*ēnu
3. Old Norse · derived fromón
4. English todayon

From Old Norse ón, án (“without”), from Proto-Germanic *ēnu, *ēno, *ino (“without”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḗnu (“without”). Cognate with North Frisian on (“without”), Middle Dutch an, on (“without”), Middle Low German āne (“without”), German ohne (“without”), Gothic 𐌹𐌽𐌿 (inu, “without, except”). Unlikely to be related to Ancient Greek ἄνευ (áneu, “without”), which is likely akin to Proto-Germanic *sundraz instead (whence sunder).

on · noun³

1. Japanese · derived from音読み
2. English todayon

From Japanese 音読み (on'yomi, literally “sound reading”).

Words from the same roots