oss

See also: Appendix:Variations of "oss"

Translingual

Etymology

Clipping of English Ossetian.

Symbol

oss

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Ossetian.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Ossetian terms

English

Etymology 1

Unclear. Middle English ōssen had a rather different meaning, "to reveal, to prophesy", but the OED suggests it could nonetheless be the same verb. The origin of the Middle English verb is itself obscure, but it may be a variant of halsen, from Old English hālsian, although this too had a rather different meaning, "to beseech, entreat; to exorcise; to imprecate".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (UK) /ɒs/
  • (in Northern England also) /ɒːs/, (and in some UK dialects also) /ɔːs/

Verb

oss

1. (dialectal) To set about, or intend be inclined to set about (doing something).
   • 1840, Ann Coward Wheeler, The Westmoreland Dialect in Four Familiar Dialogues: In which an Attempt is Made to Illustrate the Provincial Idiom, page 64:

     JENNET. [...] Soa yee see Ise ossin towart hausekeepin. SARAH. Whya nowt but weel. Wees nit hev the weddin an kirsenin at yaa time, that's a cumfort. JENNET. Hed Sammy ivver offerd onny thing that's mismannerd to me, awr courtship wod sean hae […]

   • 1872, Notes and Queries, page 492:

     "Dun you know if the glasses is ossing to sattle?"

   • 1876, Richard Morris, On the Survival of Early English Words in Our Present Dialects, page 60:

     Eh, Mary, w'ereta for? / O'm ossin' t' goo t' Eccles

   • 1885, Thomas Hallam, Four Dialect Words: Clem, Lake, Nesh, and Oss, Their Modern Dialectal Rang, Meanings, Pronunciation, Etymology, and Early Or Literary Use, page 58:

     Aw'm ossin t' goo t' Buxton

   • 1903, Bye-gones: Relating to Wales and the Border Counties, page 136:

     I told you to do so and so, but you dunna oss to do it.

   • 2024 August 1, Deborah Mutch, British Socialist Fiction, 1884-1914, Volume 3, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN:

     ... but he didn't oss for t' goo any ner.

2. (dialectal) To offer (to do something).
   • 1870, Axon, Black Kt., page 56, quoted in the EDD:

     an' nobody ossin' to do it

   • 1875, Bickerdike, Beacon Alm., page 41, quoted in the EDD:

     They owe fer cannels, an' meyle, an' nivver oss to pay.

   • 1886, Robert Holland, A Glossary of Words Used in the County of Chester, page 459:

     "... he ne'er osses pay me, an aw hearn foaks sen he isna gettingk on gradely reet, so aw'st just caw an ax for th' brass afore he goes to th' wa', an then aw'st caw an get thee a yew pair o' pattens as aw coom hwom!"

   • 1897, Hamilton Kingsford, Vigornian Monologues: A Series of Papers in Illustration of the Dialect of Worcestershire, page 11:

     Tom Stokes 'e ossed to goo an' ketch 'er, an' wen 'er runned by 'im 'e thraowed a stone vicious, an' 'it 'er ov the heye, an' 'er worn't good fur nothin' ahterwards, an' I sowld 'er fur wot 'er 'ud fetch […]

References

• Anatoly Liberman, Ossing is bossing: "Oss, current over a large territory of England, [...]"

Etymology 2

Noun

oss (plural osses)

1. Alternative spelling of 'oss.

Anagrams

• S.O.S., SOS, SOs, SSO, so's, sos

Icelandic

Etymology

From Old Norse oss.

Pronoun

oss

1. (personal, archaic, formal) accusative of vér

   Þetta kemur oss ekki við.

   This does not affect us.

2. (personal, archaic, formal) dative of vér

Declension

Icelandic honorific pronouns

plural	first person	second person
nominative	vér	þér
accusative	oss	yður
dative	oss	yður
genitive	vor	yðar

See also personal pronouns.

Lombard

Etymology

From Latin ossum, popular variant of os, ossis, from Proto-Italic *ōs, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃ésth₁ (“bone”), *h₂óst.

Pronunciation

• (Milanese) IPA^(key): /ˈɔs/

Noun

oss

1. bone

References

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 90: “le ossa; un osso” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it
• Arrighi, Cletto (1896), Dizionario milanese-italiano, col repertorio italiano-milanese: […] ‎^[1] (in Italian), Milan: Hoepli, page 489

Norwegian Bokmål

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔsː/

Pronoun

oss

1. us
2. (reflexive; also oss selv) ourselves

See also

Norwegian Bokmål personal pronouns

Number	Person	Type	Nominative	Oblique	Possessive
					feminine	masculine	neuter	plural
Singular	First	–	jeg	meg	mi	min	mitt	mine
	Second	general	du	deg	di	din	ditt	dine
		formal (rare)	De	Dem	Deres
	Third	feminine (person)	hun	henne	hennes
		masculine (person)	han	ham / han	hans
		feminine (noun)	den		dens
		masculine (noun)
		neuter (noun)	det		dets
		reflexive	–	seg	si	sin	sitt	sine
Plural	First	–	vi	oss	vår		vårt	våre
	Second	general	dere		deres
		formal (very rare)	De	Dem	Deres
	Third	general	de	dem	deres
		reflexive	–	seg	si	sin	sitt	sine

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• okke, osse
• åss, øss, os

Etymology

From Old Norse accusative and dative oss of vér, from Proto-Germanic accusative *uns, from Proto-Indo-European *n̥smé. For dialectal sense, compare e.g. Afrikaans ons (“we, us”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔsː/

Pronoun

oss

1. (personal) us; me and at least one other person; objective case of me and vi
2. (reflexive pronoun) ourselves
   • 1998, Jon Fosse, Natta syng sine songar, Oslo: Samlaget, page 203:

     vi tok oss god tid

     we took our time

     (literally, “we took ourselves good time”)

3. (dialectal, Gudbrandsdal, Romsdal, Trøndelag, personal) we

   Når va det oss skoillj fårrå te skævven?

   When we were supposed to go to the forest?

   • 1770, Edvard Storm, “Guten aa Jenta paa Fjøshjellen”, in Den fyrste morgonblånen, Oslo: Novus, published 1990, page 233:

     Dæmæ venda os aat Bygden

     thus we turn towards the village

References

• “oss”, in Norsk Ordbok: ordbok over det norske folkemålet og det nynorske skriftmålet, Oslo: Samlaget, 1950-2016

Old Norse

Pronoun

oss

1. accusative of vér
2. dative of vér

Declension

Old Norse personal pronouns

singular	first person	second person	reflexive	third person
				masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	ek	þú	—	hann	hon, hón, hǫ́n	þat
accusative	mik	þik	sik	hann	hana, hána	þat
dative	mér	þér	sér	hánum, hónum, hǫ́num	henni	því
genitive	mín	þín	sín	hans	hennar	þess
dual	first person	second person	reflexive
nominative	vit	it, þit	—
accusative	okkr	ykkr	sik
dative	okkr	ykkr	sér
genitive	okkar	ykkar	sín
plural	first person	second person	reflexive	third person
				masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	vér	ér, þér	—	þeir	þær	þau
accusative	oss	yðr	sik	þá	þær	þau
dative	oss	yðr	sér	þeim	þeim	þeim
genitive	vár	yðar, yðvar	sín	þeira, þeirra	þeira, þeirra	þeira, þeirra

Descendants

• Icelandic: oss
• Faroese: os, oss
• Norn:

  Orkney: vus

  Shetland: wus

• Norwegian: oss
• Dalian: wóss, vôss, ôss, våss, uôss, wåss, wôss, huoss
  • Elfdalian: uoss
• Old Swedish: oss
  • Swedish: oss
• Scanian: váss
• Old Danish: os, us
  • Danish: os
• Gutnish: våss

Romansch

Alternative forms

• ies (Sursilvan)
• òss (Surmiran)
• öss (Puter, Vallader)

Etymology

From Latin ossum, popular variant of os.

Noun

oss m

1. (Rumantsch Grischun) bone

Noun

oss m (plural ossa)

1. (Sutsilvan) bone

Swedish

Alternative forms

• oß (obsolete typography)

Etymology

From Old Norse oss, from Proto-Germanic *uns, from Proto-Indo-European *n̥smé.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔs/

• Audio:

  (file)

Pronoun

oss

1. us (objective case)

   Såg du oss där?

   Did you see us there?

   • 1981, X Models, “Två av oss [Two of us]”‎^[2]:

     Det finns bara en av mig och det är jag. Det finns bara en av dig och det är du. Det finns bara två av oss, och det är vi.

     There is only one of me and that is I. There is only one of you [object] and that is you [subject]. There are only two of us, and that is us [we – subject]. [Swedish has some of the same subject/object fuzziness as English, but a standalone "Det är <pronoun>" idiomatically (through intuition rather than being taught) uses the subject form]

2. reflexive case of vi; compare ourselves

   Vi skulle vilja lära oss jonglera

   We would like to learn how to juggle

   (literally, “We would like to learn/teach ourselves to juggle”)

   • 1974, Lasse Tennander, “Ska vi gå hem till dig [Shall We Go to Your Place ["home to you" – idiomatic]]”, in Allting som ni gör kan jag göra bättre [Anything You Do, I Can Do Better [a cover album]]‎^[3], performed by Magnus Uggla:

     Ska vi gå hem till dig eller hem till mig, eller var och en hem till sitt? Ska vi göra som dom andra och ägna oss åt varandra, eller ska var och en sköta sitt?

     Shall we go to your place ["home to you" – idiomatic] or to my place [home to me], or each one ["each and one" – idiomatic] home to theirs [nominalized – neuter gender is used when there is no concrete referent, like in impersonal constructions and here, as a rule of thumb]? Shall we do like the others and spend time on each other [engage ourselves in each other as an activity – doesn't have the connotations of devote], or shall each one mind [take care of] theirs [nominalized]?

Usage notes

Note that some verbs have special senses when used reflexively. For example, do not confuse vi lär oss att... ("we learn to...") [reflexive] with de lär oss att... ("they teach us to...") and vi lär oss själva att... ("we teach ourselves to..."). Here, lär means teach(es) if it is not reflexive, but learn(s) if it is reflexive. Hence the need for the separate pronoun "oss själva" to be used when object and subject agree, but the verb nevertheless should not be used in the reflexive case.

Declension

Swedish personal pronouns

Number	Person		nominative	oblique	possessive
					common	neuter	plural
singular	first	—	jag	mig, mej3	min	mitt	mina
	second	—	du	dig, dej3	din	ditt	dina
	third	masculine (person)	han	honom, han2, en5	hans
		feminine (person)	hon	henne, na5	hennes
		gender-neutral (person)1	hen	hen, henom7	hens
		common (noun)	den	den	dess
		neuter (noun)	det	det	dess
		indefinite	man or en4	en	ens
		reflexive	—	sig, sej3	sin	sitt	sina
plural	first	—	vi	oss	vår, våran2	vårt, vårat2	våra
	second	—	ni	er	er, eran2, ers6	ert, erat2	era
		archaic	I	eder	eder, eders6	edert	edra
	third	—	de, dom3	dem, dom3	deras
		reflexive	—	sig, sej3	sin	sitt	sina

¹Neologism. Usage has increased since 2010, though it remains limited.

²Informal

³Colloquial pronunciation spelling.

⁴Dialectal, also used lately as an alternative to man, to avoid association to the male gender.

⁵Informal, somewhat dialectal

⁶Formal address

⁷Discouraged by the Swedish Language Council

See also

• oss själva

References

• vi in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• vi in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• vi in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Anagrams

• SOS, sos

Võro

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *oksa.

Noun

oss (genitive ossa, partitive ossa)

1. branch

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.