▪ I. † ane, a. Obs. or dial.
[representing sundry parts and uses of the adj. one, OE. án.]
1. án-e: Various inflected forms of án ‘one’: in OE. the acc. sing. fem., nom. and acc. pl. of indef. decl., and nom. and acc. sing. fem. and neut. of def. decl.; in early ME. representing other earlier inflections, esp. dat. sing. m. and n., but used chiefly as the def. form, and after the n. = ‘only’: see one.
| 879 O.E. Chron., Aþiestrode sió sunne áne t{iacu}d dæᵹes. a 1000 Cædmon Gen. 2134 Nymðe feá áne. c 1000 Andreas 492 Is þys áne má. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 35 Bi-foren þam preoste ane. c 1220 Hali Meid. 7 Serue Godd ane. Ibid. 25 Al..oðer ane deale. |
2. In ME., north. dial., common variant of an (ane = ān, with mute e indicating long vowel), the full form of the numeral used absol. or attrib. bef. a vowel (bef. a const. reduced to a); also occas. of the weakened numeral or ‘indef. article’ bef. a vowel, the stress alone distinguishing the two senses (as in Ger. ein and Fr. un). See an adj.1
| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 3109 Þe body with flesshe and bane Es harder þan þe saul by it ane. c 1340 ― Prose Treat. 8 Ane es þat sche es neuer ydill. 1375 Barbour Bruce v. 24 Rouit alwayis in-till ane. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. vii. v. 98 This is ane of my Ladyis Pynnys. |
3. In 16th c. Sc., the literary representative of earlier ane, an, and a, in all positions, alike as numeral and indefinite article. = One, an, a.
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. ii. ix. 8 Ane honest man and of gud fame. ? a 1530 Peebles to Play 51 Ane young man..With ane bow and ane bolt. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scotl. I. 3 Ane profound clerk is he. 1578 Ps. li. in Sc. Poems 16th C. II. 120 Ane sweit humble hert. 1588 A. King Canisius' Catech. 124 Sic a ane as makis nocht ane man gods enimie. |
4. In mod.Sc. and north dial., the absolute form of the numeral one (pron. en, in, i(ə)n, jɪn, jen, jɛn, jæn, jan); the adj. form bef. either vowel or const. being a, ae (pron. e, ɪ, i(ə), ji, je, jɛ, jæ, ja). One.
| c 1620 A. Hume Orthog. Brit. Tong. (1865) 33 Ane is a noun of number. 1782 Clunzee in Burns Wks. I. 364, I loe nae a laddie but ane. a 1796 Burns Wks. (Moxon) 476 Oh, let me in this ae night, This ae, ae, ae night. 1826 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 177 At ane and the same time. |
▪ II. ane
obs. form of awn and of one v.