oure

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English ūre, from Proto-West Germanic *unsar, from Proto-Germanic *unseraz. Compare Middle Dutch onse and Middle High German unser.

Alternative forms

• our, ouer, ouwer, houre, hour, oyur, ouȝr, owre, ure, ur, urre, urr, hure, hur, wre, wr, vure, vur, ore, hore, ura

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈuːr(ə)/
• (unstressed) IPA^(key): /ˈur(ə)/

Determiner

oure (nominative we)

1. First-person plural genitive determiner: our
   • c. 1335-1361, William of Palerne (MS. King's College 13), folio 6, recto, lines 198-199; republished as W. W. Skeat, editor, The Romance of William of Palerne‎^[1], London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1867, →OCLC, page 12:

     Hit tidde after on a time · as tellus our bokes / as þis bold barn his beſtes · blybeliche keped […]

     Afterwards, as our books record, it happened one day that / while this brave child was peacefully looking after his animals […]

2. my, mine (This is equivalent to Modern English "royal we", but is also used informally).

Pronoun

oure (nominative we)

1. First-person plural possessive pronoun: ours, of us

Descendants

• English: our
• Scots: oor, wir
• Yola: oor, our, ure, oure, owre, oore

See also

Middle English personal pronouns

			nominative	accusative	dative	genitive	possessive
singular	1st-person		I, ich, ik	me		min mi1	min
	2nd-person		þou	þe		þin þi1	þin
	3rd-person	m	he	him hine2	him	his	his hisen
		f	sche, heo	hire heo	hire		hire hires, hiren
		n	hit		hit him2	his, hit	—
dual3	1st-person		wit	unk		unker
	2nd-person		ȝit	inc		inker
plural	1st-person		we	us, ous		oure	oure oures, ouren
	2nd-person4		ye	yow		your	your youres, youren
	3rd-person	inh.	he	hem he2	hem	here	here heres, heren
		bor.	þei	þem, þeim		þeir	þeir þeires, þeiren

¹Used preconsonantally or before h.
²Early or dialectal.
³Dual pronouns are only sporadically found in Early Middle English; after that, they are replaced by plural forms. There are no third-person dual forms in Middle English.
⁴Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

References

• “ǒure, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-23.

Etymology 2

From Old English ūr (“aurochs”), from Proto-West Germanic *ūr, from Proto-Germanic *ūraz.

Alternative forms

• ore

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /uːr/

Noun

oure

2. (rare) aurochs

References

• “ǒure, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-23.

Etymology 3

Noun

oure

1. Alternative form of houre

Etymology 4

Noun

oure

1. Alternative form of ore (“ore”)

Etymology 5

Determiner

oure

1. Alternative form of your

Yola

Determiner

oure

1. Alternative form of oor
   • 1867, CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, line 6:

     an na plaine garbe o' oure yola talke,

     and in the simple dress of our old dialect,

References

• Jacob Poole (1867), 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, page 114