RFV discussion: January–April 2016

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'n#Etymology_3 asserts that'n is an "Eye dialect spelling ofown." All of the citations are ofhis'n,our'n, etc, where the'n is the result of folk reinterpretation ofourn (where the-n goes back to an Old English genitive) andhisn (where then was added in the Middle English era by analogy withmine andthine) as "his own" or "his one". Is the fact that people mistakenly interpret the'n inour'n as "own" sufficient to justify this entry? Do citations exist where'n (actually / outside those pronouns) meansown?- -sche(discuss)05:51, 29 January 2016 (UTC)Reply

These were the citations, which might be of use on the entries forhis'n etc:

• 1748,Samuel Richardson,Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady, reprint, 6th edition, volume 1, London, published1768, Letter 32,page270:

  I will not show him this letter of yours though you seem to desire it, lest it should provoke him to be too severe a schoolmaster, when you are his’n.

• 1776,Samuel Foote,The Capuchin, T. Sherlock for T. Cadell, published1778, (rev. ed. ofA Trip to Calais: a comedy in three acts, premiered 1776),page102:

  Eating ! sure your honour does not think their wictuals are better than our’n.

• 1862,Mayne Reid,The Maroon, reprint edition, London: Ward and Lock, published1864, Chapter VII “The Foolah Prince”,pages31–32:

  “Forty there [are...] Twenty on ’em I’m to have for fetchin’ him acrost. [...The other twenty] are his’n. He’s brought ’em with him to swop for the sister—when he finds her.”

• 1883,Bill Nye,Baled Hay: A drier book than Walt Whitman’s “Leaves o’ Grass”, reprint edition, F. F. Lovell & Co., published1884,page175:

  We have met the enemy, and we are his’n. [Antecedent to "We have met the enemy and he is us."]

RFV-failed.- -sche(discuss)21:44, 17 April 2016 (UTC)Reply

Eye dialect spelling of than.