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own, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
own in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English owen, aȝen, from Old English āgen (“own, proper, peculiar”), originally the past participle of āgan; from Proto-West Germanic *aigan (“own”), from Proto-Germanic *aiganaz (“own”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyḱ- (“to have, possess”).
Also cognate with Sanskrit ईश्वर (īśvará, “able to do, capable of; owner, master”).
Alternative forms
- owne (obsolete)
- 'n (informal contraction)
Adjective
own (not comparable)
- Belonging to; possessed; acquired; proper to; property of; titled to; held in one's name; under/using the name of. Often marks a possessive determiner as reflexive, referring back to the subject of the clause or sentence.
1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 14:Prospero: Fairely ſpoke ; / Sit then, and talke with her, ſhe is thine owne ;
1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.
1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.
2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you […] "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.
- Not shared.
When we move into the new house, the kids will each have their own bedroom.
- (obsolete) Peculiar, domestic.
- (obsolete) Not foreign.
Usage notes
- Often used for implication of ownership, often with emphasis. In modern usage, it always follows a possessive determiner, or a noun in the possessive case.
Derived terms
Translations
belonging to (determiner)
- Afrikaans: eie (af)
- Arabic: مِلْك (ar) (milk), نَفْس (ar) (nafs)
- Assamese: নিজৰ (nizor)
- Azerbaijani: öz (az)
- Bashkir: үҙ (üź)
- Belarusian: свой (svoj), ула́сны (ulásny), ўла́сны (ŭlásny)
- Bulgarian: свой (svoj), со́бствен (bg) (sóbstven)
- Catalan: mateix (ca), propi (ca)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 自己的 (zh) (zìjǐ de)
- Cornish: honen
- Czech: vlastní (cs)
- Danish: egen (da)
- Dutch: eigen (nl)
- Esperanto: propra
- Finnish: oma (fi)
- French: (used before the noun) propre (fr) m or f
- Georgian: საკუთარი (saḳutari)
- German: (used before the noun, declined according to gender and case) eigen (de)
- Gothic: 𐍃𐍅𐌴𐍃 (swēs)
- Greek:
- Ancient: ἴδιος (ídios)
- Hawaiian: ponoʻī
- Hindi: अपना (hi) (apnā)
- Hungarian: saját (hu),birtokol (hu)
- Indonesian: sendiri (id)
- Irish: féin
- Istriot: pruoprio
- Italian: (used before the noun) proprio (it)
- Japanese: 自身の (ja) (じしんの, jishin no)
- Khmer: ឯង (km) (ʼaeng), ខ្លួនឯង (khluən ʼaeng)
- Korean: 자기의 (ko) (jagi-ui)
- Latin: proprius (la)
- Latvian: savs
- Macedonian: свој (svoj), сопствен (sopstven)
- Malay: sendiri (ms)
- Occitan: pròpri (oc) m
- Old English: āgen
- Old Saxon: ēgan
- Polish: swój (pl) m, własny (pl) m
- Portuguese: próprio (pt)
- Russian: свой (ru) (svoj), со́бственный (ru) (sóbstvennyj)
- Scots: ain
- Scottish Gaelic: fhèin
- Serbo-Croatian: властит, vlastit (sh), сопствен, sopstven (sh)
- Slovak: svoj m, vlastný (sk)
- Slovene: svoj, lasten (sl)
- Spanish: (used before the noun) propio (es)
- Swedish: egen (sv)
- Thai: please add this translation if you can
- Ukrainian: свій (uk) (svij), вла́сний (vlásnyj)
- Urdu: اپنا (ur) (apnā)
- Uzbek: oʻzi (uz)
- Venetian: propio
- Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
- Yiddish: אייגן (eygn)
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Etymology 2
A back-formation from owner, owning and own (adjective). Compare Old English āgnian, Dutch eigenen, German eignen, Swedish ägna.
Verb
own (third-person singular simple present owns, present participle owning, simple past and past participle owned)
- (transitive) To have rightful possession of (property, goods or capital); to have legal title to; to acquire a property or asset.
I own this car.
- (transitive) To have recognized political sovereignty over a place, territory, as distinct from the ordinary connotation of property ownership.
The United States owns Point Roberts by the terms of the Treaty of Oregon.
- (transitive) To defeat or embarrass; to overwhelm.
I will own my enemies.
If he wins, he will own you.
- (transitive) To virtually or figuratively enslave.
- (online gaming, slang) To defeat, dominate, or be above, also spelled pwn.
- (transitive, computing, slang) To illicitly obtain superuser or root access to a computer system, thereby having access to all of the user files on that system; pwn.
1996 June 21, The Happiest Dragon Alive!!, “Re: An unusual situation”, in (Usenet), retrieved 2016-09-24, message-ID <[email protected]>:"TH15 5Y5T3M 15 0WN3D"
- (intransitive, slang) To be very good.
- (intransitive) To admit, concede, grant, allow, acknowledge, confess; not to deny.
1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick:I own thy speechless, placeless power; but to the last gasp of my earthquake life will dispute its unconditional, unintegral mastery in me.
1895, Kenneth Graham, The Golden Age, London, page 6:For instance, when I flung the cat out of an upper window (though I did it from no ill-feeling, and it didn't hurt the cat), I was ready, after a moment's reflection, to own I was wrong, as a gentleman should.
1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, , →OCLC, part I:I am sorry to own I began to worry then.
- (transitive) To admit; concede; acknowledge.
1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :Two of those fellows you must know and own.
1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “1, ’’Jocelin of Brakelond’’”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):It must be owned, the good Jocelin, spite of his beautiful childlike character, is but an altogether imperfect 'mirror' of these old-world things!
- (transitive) To proudly acknowledge; to not be ashamed or embarrassed of.
2014 April 17, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Thursday, Apr 17, 2014:"Well, I'm not hiding anymore! I'm owning my girly looks with cute short pink hair!"
- (transitive) To take responsibility for.
- (transitive) To recognise; acknowledge.
to own one as a son
- (transitive) To claim as one's own.
- (intransitive, UK dialectal) To confess.
Synonyms
- (have rightful possession of): to possess, acquire, have to one's name, property of, titled to
- (defeat): beat, defeat, overcome, overthrow, vanquish, have, take, best
Antonyms
- (antonym(s) of “admit”): disown
Derived terms
Translations
have rightful possession of
- Afrikaans: besit (af), het (af)
- Aleut: ux̂tal
- Arabic: مَلَكَ (ar) (malaka)
- Armenian: ունենալ (hy) (unenal)
- Belarusian: вало́даць impf (valódacʹ), мець (be) impf (mjecʹ)
- Bulgarian: владе́я (bg) impf (vladéja), и́мам (bg) impf (ímam)
- Cheyenne: -á'en
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 拥有 (zh) (yōngyǒu), 有 (zh) (yǒu), 所有 (zh) (suǒyǒu)
- Czech: vlastnit (cs) impf, mít (cs) impf
- Danish: eje (da)
- Dutch: bezitten (nl), hebben (nl)
- Esperanto: posedi (eo)
- Faroese: eiga (fo)
- Finnish: omistaa (fi)
- French: posséder (fr), avoir (fr)
- Georgian: ფლობს (plobs)
- German: besitzen (de), haben (de)
- Gothic: 𐌰𐌹𐌲𐌰𐌽 (aigan)
- Greek:
- Ancient: κέκτημαι (kéktēmai)
- Hebrew: no equivalent term in Hebrew, but see יש ל־ (yésh l'-), היה ל־ (hayá l'-), שייך ל־ (shayákh l'-)
- Hungarian: birtokol (hu), bír (hu), saját (hu)
- Icelandic: eiga (is)
- Italian: possedere (it)
- Japanese: 所有する (ja) (しょゆうする, shoyū suru)
- Khmer: ជាម្ចាស់ (ciəmcah)
- Korean: 소유하다 (ko) (soyuhada)
- Latin: possideō, habeō (la)
- Macedonian: поседува impf (poseduva), има impf (ima)
- Norwegian: eie (no)
- Old English: āgan (ang)
- Old Saxon: ēgan
- Polish: posiadać (pl) impf, mieć (pl) impf
- Portuguese: possuir (pt)
- Quechua: jap'iy
- Romanian: deține (ro)
- Russian: владе́ть (ru) impf (vladétʹ), облада́ть (ru) impf (obladátʹ), име́ть (ru) impf (imétʹ)
- Sanskrit: ईष्टे (īṣṭe)
- Scots: awn
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: властити impf, поседовати impf, имати impf
- Roman: vlastiti impf, posedovati impf, imati (sh) impf
- Slovak: vlastniť impf, mať (sk) impf
- Slovene: imeti (sl) impf
- Spanish: poseer (es)
- Swahili: miliki (sw)
- Swedish: äga (sv)
- Turkish: sahip olmak (tr)
- Ukrainian: володі́ти impf (volodíty), ма́ти (uk) impf (máty)
- Vietnamese: sở hữu (vi)
- Volapük: dalabön (vo)
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acknowledge responsibility for
Translations to be checked
Noun
own (plural owns)
- (Internet slang) A crushing insult.
2023 June 10, @__Happyface, Twitter:the amount of bigots that just screenshot my profile thinking it's the biggest own is insane.
Derived terms
References
- Universal Dictionary of the English Language , volume 3, 1896, page 3429: “To possess by right; to have the right of property in; to have the legal right or rightful title to.”
- ibid., UDEL, 1896
- ibid., UDEL, 1896
- ibid., UDEL, 1896
Anagrams
Portuguese
Interjection
own
- aw (used to express affection)
Quotations
For quotations using this term, see Citations:own.
Yola
Pronoun
own
- Alternative form of oan
1927, “ZONG O DHREE YOLA MYTHENS”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 131, lines 3:Vo no own caars fadere betides- Whom no one cares what betides,
1927, “ZONG O DHREE YOLA MYTHENS”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 131, lines 10:Thaar's no own aal to taak uz thaar.- There's no one at all to take us there,
1927, “PAUDEEN FOUGHLAAN'S WEDDEEN”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 133, lines 7:"Gud bless thee mee gurles," hay zaid, "own an aal."- "God bless you, my children," he said, "one and all."
1927, “PAUDEEN FOUGHLAAN'S WEDDEEN”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 133, lines 19:A pipere vel bak lik own in a smote,- The piper fell back like one well smitten,
Adjective
own
- Alternative form of oan
1867, OBSERVATIONS BY THE EDITOR, pages 18:
1927, “YOLA ZONG O BARONY VORTH”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 132, lines 4:Fan Buckeen hay pooked lik own thing mad.- When Buckeen he jumped like a thing mad.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Kathleen A. Browne (1927) The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth Series, Vol.17 No.2, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland
- ^ Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 18