Etymology

you

Y4O1U1

Today it means: The people spoken, or written to, as an object. Full definition →

First used 9th c.Middle English you ← Old English ēow ← Proto-West Germanic *iwwi
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

you · pronoun, determiner, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*yúHs“you”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*izwiz“you”
  3. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*iwwiz“you”
  4. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*iwwi“you”
  5. Old English · inherited fromēow“you”
  6. Middle English · inherited fromyou
  7. English todayyou

From Middle English you, yow, ȝow (object case of ye), from Old English ēow (“you”, dative case of ġē), from Proto-West Germanic *iwwi (“you”, dative case of *jiʀ), from Proto-Germanic *iwwiz (“you”, dative case of *jīz), the Western form of Proto-Germanic *izwiz (“you”, dative case of *jūz), from Proto-Indo-European *yúHs (“you”, plural). Cognate with Scots you (“you”), Saterland Frisian jou (“you”), West Frisian jo (“you”), Low German jo, joe and oe (“you”), Dutch jou and u (“you”), German euch (“you”), Middle High German eu, iu (“you”, object pronoun), Latin vōs (“you”), Avestan 𐬬𐬋 (vō, “you”), Ashkun yë̃ (“you”), Kamkata-viri šo (“you”), Sanskrit यूयम् (yūyám, “you”). See usage notes. Ye, you and your are cognate with Dutch jij/je, jou, jouw; Low German ji, jo/ju, jug and German ihr, euch and euer respectively. Ye is also cognate with Danish I and archaic Swedish I. Compare the shift to the second-person singular informal Spanish vos, historically a formal pronoun.

You · pronoun2

Capitalization of you.

You · proper noun3

From irregular, Wade–Giles, and Hanyu Pinyin romanizations of the Mandarin pronunciations of various Chinese characters, including 余, 于, 由 (yóu), 魚 /鱼 (yú) / 鱼 (yú), 漁 /渔 (yú), 渔 (yú), 楀 (yǔ), 俞, 喻, 兪, 於 /于, 遇 (yù), 虞 (yú), 郁 (yù), 尉, 禹 (yǔ), 游 (yóu), 尤 (yóu), 庾 (yǔ), 娛 /娱, 娱, 茹, 幽 (Yōu).

Words from the same roots

Old Englishēow all →

yo

Proto-Indo-European*yúHs all →

ye

First known use, by meaning

  • from 9th c. The people spoken, or written to, as an object.
  • from 9th c. (To) yourselves, (to) yourself.
  • from 13th c. The person spoken to or written to, as an object. (Replacing thee; originally as a mark of respect.)
  • from 14th c. The people spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Replacing ye.)
  • from 15th c. The person spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Originally as a mark of respect.)
  • from 16th c. Anyone, one; an unspecified individual or group of individuals (as subject or object).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.