English
us
Us comes from Old English ūs ‘(to) us’, from Proto-Germanic *uns ‘us’, and ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European first-person plural pronoun *wéy ‘we’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wéy1as *n̥smé, alteration‘we’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*uns1‘us’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*uns1reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150ūs1‘(to) us’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500us1
- Englishearliest quotation 1611us1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English us
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wéyWiktionary, English usas *n̥smé, alteration‘we’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*unsWiktionary, English us‘us’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*unsWiktionary, English usreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150ūsWiktionary, English us‘(to) us’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500usWiktionary, English us
- Englishearliest quotation 1611usWiktionary, English us. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set…”
The story
The compensatory lengthening was lost in Middle English due to the word being unstressed when used.
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with us, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *wéy
- we ← *wiʀ ← *wīz
Explore everything descended from *wéy →
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Today it means
pron Me and at least one other person, excluding the person(s) being addressed. (exclusive us.)
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “us”. 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.