From what conſummate vertue I have choſe / This perfect Man, by merit call'd mySon,
A maleadopted person in relation to his adoptive parents.
Amale person who has such a closerelationship with anolder or otherwise moreauthoritative person that he can be regarded as a son of the other person.
1832, Noah Webster, “SON”, inA Dictionary of the English Language Intended to Exhibit the Origin of Words, the Orthography and Definitions: in Two Volumes · Volume 2[3]:
Eli called Samuel hisson. Be plain, goodson, and homely in thy drift.
A male person considered to have been significantly shaped bysocial conflict.
He was ason of the mafia system.
A person regarded as the product of some place.
1850, Oliver P. Badger, convention member from Putnam, Indiana,Report of the Debates and Proceedings of the Convention for the Revision of the Constitution of the State of Indiana, 1850 Volume 1[4], page827:
I hold it to be true, that the people are thesons of the soil; and we are only their instruments here.
A familiar address to a male person from an older or otherwise more authoritative person.
Shepard: Stay with me. We're almost through this. Admiral Anderson: You did good,son. You did good. I'm proud of you. Shepard: Thank you, sir. Anderson?
2004, Ray Bradley,The Ultimate Computing Glossary for Advanced Level, page31:
Three generations of file are usually kept, being the grandfather, father andson files.
2007, O. Ray Whittington, Patrick R. Delaney,Wiley CPA Exam Review 2008: Auditing and Attestation, page779:
After the update, the new file master file is theson. The file from which the father was developed with the transaction files of the appropriate day is the grandfather. The grandfather andson files are stored in different locations.
“Don't 'son' me.” “I'm old enough to be your father,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
2014, Stuart A. McKeever,Becoming Joey Fizz:
“Son—now's not the time, please.” “It's the perfect time—it's the best time fucking time I ever had. There's not gonna be another time, so don'tson me, you bastard.[…]”
(music)Son cubano, a genre of music and dance blendingSpanish andAfrican elements that originated inCuba during the late 19th century.
2017, Mark Kurlansky,Havana: A Subtropical Delirium[5], Bloomsbury,→ISBN:
Whenson first emerged in the streets of Havana, in the early twentieth century, it was shut down by the police, as were most forms of African culture.Son groups,conjuntos, caught playing on the street, as was the tradition, had their instruments confiscated.
^Starostin, Sergei,Dybo, Anna,Mudrak, Oleg (2003) “*soŋ”, inEtymological dictionary of the Altaic languages (Handbuch der Orientalistik; VIII.8)[2], Leiden, New York, Köln: E.J. Brill
In unstressed position in Vulgar Latinsuum, suam etc. were monosyllabic and regularly becameson, sa etc. in Catalan. When stressed they were disyllabic and becameseu,sua >seua etc.
The use ofson and the other possessive determiners is mostly archaic in the majority of dialects, with articulated possessive pronouns (e.g.el meu) mostly being used in their stead. However,mon,ton, andson are still widely used before certain nouns referring to family members and some affective nouns, such asamic,casa, andvida. Which nouns actually find use with the possessive determiners depends greatly on the locale.
The standard masculine plural form issos, butsons can be found in some dialects.
In Algherese,son and its forms mainly give reference tovostè.
This spelling is only used in texts meant to represent dialectal speech. The same contraction is common in rapid speech in many Finnish varieties, but the spelling is usually not used even in the most informal text or chat messages.
Son is used before all singular nouns beginning with a vowel or a mute H, even those that are feminine. However,sa is used with singular feminine nouns beginning with a consonant or an aspirated H.
1 Also used before feminine adjectives and nouns beginning with a vowel ormute h. 2 Also used as the polite singular form. For the singular persons there are gender-neutral neologismsman,tan,san. These are extremely rare.
1370, R. Lorenzo, editor,Crónica troiana, A Coruña: Fundación Barrié, page561:
Et começou o torneo a creçer tãto, et a seer o acapelamento tã grande, et a uolta et os braados et os alaridos et ossõos dos cornos et das tronpas tã grandes et tã esquiuos que ome nõ se podía oýr
And the tournament began to grow so much, and the carnage was so large, and the din and the roars and the yells and thesounds of the horns and of the trumpets so big and harsh that a man couldn't heard himself
1409, J. L. Pensado Tomé, editor,Tratado de Albeitaria, Santiago de Compostela: Centro Ramón Piñeiro, page69:
Et pasando porllos ditos, hu ha gran roido et gransoon se se o Cauallo espantar no no deuen ferir con açorregos, nen con vara, nen con espora, mais deuen no trager mansamente, con hũa cana afaagandoo et lleuandoo porllos ditos llugares a miude
And passing by the mentioned places, where there is big noise and bigsound, if the horse frightens, they should not wound him with whips nor with a stick, nor with spoor, rather they should bring him meekly, fondling him with a twig and taking him through this places often
Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “soon”, inCorpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega
Koponen, Eino, Ruppel, Klaas, Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002–2008),Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages[6], Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland
Note that a grammaticalised unit meaning‘for’ is formed by a prepositional phrase combining the prepositionair /ar with a nominal or pronominal argument andson. (These structures are sometimes called‘compound prepositions’.)
Koponen, Eino, Ruppel, Klaas, Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002–2008),Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages[8], Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland
FromLatinsonus, probably through the intermediate ofOld Occitanson (or influenced by it); alternatively, but less likely, regressively derived from the verbsonar (the more expected form issueno that appeared in some Medieval texts).[1] CompareEnglishsound andPortuguesesom.
