Etymograph

English

yours

Yours comes from Middle English youres, from your + -s, formed on the pattern of his.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500youres1
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1907yours1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English yours
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1907, Robert William Chambers, New York: ““Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours…”.

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500youresWiktionary, English yours
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1907yoursWiktionary, English yours. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1907, Robert William Chambers, New York: ““Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours…”

The story

From Middle English youres, ȝoures, attested since the 1300s.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

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

through Middle English you

1 more relative in the full family tree

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Today it means

pron That or those belonging to you; the possessive second-person singular pronoun used without a following noun.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “yours”. 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 / Middle English youres / yours