Etymograph

English

our

Our comes from Old English ūre ‘our’, from Proto-Germanic *unseraz ‘of us, our’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *n̥-s-ero- ‘our’ (a form of *wéy ‘we’).

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*n̥-s-ero-1‘our’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*unseraz1‘of us, our’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*unsar2reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150ūre1‘our’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500oure1
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1992our1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English our
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Old English ure
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1992, Rudolf Mathias Schuster, Chicago: “Thirdly, I continue to attempt to interdigitate the taxa…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*n̥-s-ero-Wiktionary, English our‘our’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*unserazWiktionary, English our‘of us, our’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*unsarWiktionary, Old English urereconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150ūreWiktionary, English our‘our’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500oureWiktionary, English our
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1992ourWiktionary, English our. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1992, Rudolf Mathias Schuster, Chicago: “Thirdly, I continue to attempt to interdigitate the taxa…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with our, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Germanic *unseraz ‘of us, our’

  • wor ← várr ← *ᛟᛊᚨᚱᚨᛉ

through Middle English oure

1 more relative in the full family tree

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Today it means

det Belonging to us, excluding the person(s) being addressed (exclusive our).

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “our”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Old English ure. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *n̥-s-ero- / our