Us

Part of speech: pronoun

Definitions

1. The speaker and one or more other people, used as the object of a verb or preposition ; a casual way of referring to oneself as the speaker in some phrases
2. Refers to the speaker along with others when it is the object of an action ; a colloquial substitute for the first-person singular in certain expressions
3. Denotes a group that includes the speaker, placed after a verb or preposition ; an informal stand-in for the speaker themselves in everyday speech

Etymology: The pronoun "us" is one of the oldest words in English, and its shape hides a lost sound. Its ancestor was a form built on a much older root meaning "we" or "us," which also gave Latin "nos." Over the centuries the vowel was lengthened in the early form, a change that English later undid. Because the word was usually unstressed in speech, the long vowel was lost in Middle English, leaving the short "us" we use today. The same root survives across the Germanic family. Dutch has "ons," German "uns," Danish "os," and Low German "uns," all meaning "us." Frisian languages keep a close form too, with West Frisian "us" and Saterland Frisian "uus." Seen alongside these, the English word looks like a close relative of its continental cousins rather than a borrowing.