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own

UK/əʊn/ US/aːn/ very common informal slang uk
adjective (1) verb (1)

adjective

1.

belonging to or on behalf of a specified person (especially yourself); preceded by a possessive

  • “for your own use”
  • “do your own thing”
  • “she makes her own clothes”
  • “ain”
Synonyms
Similar

verb

1.

have ownership or possession of

  • “He owns three houses in Florida”
  • “How many cars does she have?”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English aȝen, owen, 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”). Cognates Cognate with Scots ain, awin, awn, ayn (“own”), Saterland Frisian oain (“own”), West Frisian, Dutch, and German eigen (“own”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Swedish egen (“own”), Faroese egin (“own”), Icelandic eigin, eiginn (“own”), Norwegian Nynorsk eigen (“own”); also Ossetian исын (isyn, “to take”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B aik- (“to know, recognize”), Sanskrit ईश (īśa, “owning, possessing”). Originally past participle of the verb at hand in English owe.

Phrases

  • a good deed is its own reward
  • a life of its own
  • a prophet has no honor in his own country
  • a prophet is not without honor save in his own country
  • abound in one's own sense
  • afraid of one's own shadow
  • after one's own heart
  • after one's own soul
  • own up
  • you will own nothing and be happy

Related words

Word family

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.