"an" definition, meaning, and origin

Article

Form of a (all article senses).
- I'll be there in half an hour.
- 'E's staying at an 'otel. (compare He's staying at a hotel.)
- Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of...
1. Used before a vowel sound.
2. Used before /h/ in a stressed or unstressed syllable.
  - 1 I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined vnto me, and heard my crie. 2 He brought me vp also out of an horrible pit, out of the mirie clay, and set my feete vpon a rock, and established my goings. - 1611, The...
  - The Province of Nanking, by the Tartars called Kiangnan, is the ſecond in honour, in magnitude and fertility in all China : It is divided into 14 great Territories, having Cities and Towns an hundred and ten; Nanking,...
  - Following the doctrine of Lenin and Stalin, relying on the support of the great Soviet state and all the revolutionary forces of all countries, the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people gained an historic...
3. (now quite rare) Used before one and words with initial ⟨u⟩, ⟨eu⟩ when pronounced /ju/.
  - God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows. - 1611, The Holy Bible,...
  - My hopes, from my earliest years, have been hopes of celebrity as a writer- not of wealth, or of influence, or of accomplishing any of the thousand aims which furnish the great bulk of mankind with motives. You will...
  - President Nicolas Sarkozy of France is open to an European monetary fund but would want it to raise money cheaply on capital markets and lend it to needy euro-zone countries before they faced possible default. - 2010...
4. (nonstandard, UK, West Country) Used before all consonants.

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ís? Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos Proto-Germanic *ainaz Proto-West Germanic *ain Old English ān Middle English an English an From Middle English an, from Old English ān (“a, an”, literally “one”). More at one.

Derived

another

Conjunction

If
- […] An the worst fall that ever fell, I hope I shall make shift to go without him. - c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...
- Thereupon, quoth he, "O woman, for sundry days I have seen thee attend the levée sans a word said; so tell me an thou have any requirement I may grant." - 1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor,...
So long as.
- An it harm none, do what ye will.
As if; as though.
- At length did cross an Albatross, Thorough the Fog it came; And an it were a Christian Soul, We hail'd it in God's Name.