Definify.com

Webster 1828 Edition


Er

ER

, the termination of many English words, is the Teutonic form of the Latin or; the one contracted from wer, the other from vir, a man. It denotes an agent, originally of the masculine gender, but now applied to men or things indifferently; as in farmer, heater, grater. At the end names of places, er signifies a man of the place; Londoner is the same as London-man.
There is a passage in Herodotus, Melpomene, 110, in which the word wer, vir, a man, is mentioned as used by the Scythians; a fact proving the affinity of the Scythian and the Teutonic nations.
'The Scythians call the Amazons Oiorpata, a word which may be rendered, in Greek, menkillers; for oior is the name they give to man, pata signifies to kill.' Pata, in the Burman language, signifies to kill; but it is probable that this is really the English beat.

Definition 2024


Er

Er

See also: Appendix:Variations of "er"

Translingual

Symbol

Er

  1. (chemistry) Symbol for erbium.

Turkish

Proper noun

Er

  1. A male given name

er

er

See also: Appendix:Variations of "er"

English

Pronunciation

Interjection

er

  1. Said when hesitating in speech.

Verb

er (third-person singular simple present ers, present participle erring, simple past and past participle erred)

  1. (informal) To utter the word "er" when hesitating in speech, found almost exclusively in the phrase um and er.
    He ummed and erred his way through the presentation.

See also

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: known · thee · hope · #317: er · children · English · sure

Anagrams


Afrikaans

Noun

er (plural erre or ers, diminutive erretjie)

  1. The name of the Latin-script letter R/r.

Alemannic German

Pronoun

er m

  1. (personal) he; it

Declension


Breton

Contraction

er

  1. e (preposition "in") + ur (indefinite article "a(n)")
  2. e (preposition "in") + ar (definite article "the")

Cornish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [eːɹ]

Etymology 1

From Proto-Celtic *eriro- (eagle) (compare Breton erer, Welsh eryr, Old Irish irar), from Proto-Indo-European *or (large bird).

er (an eagle)

Noun

er m (plural eryon or eres)

  1. eagle

Etymology 2

Noun

er m (plural erys)

  1. heir

Etymology 3

Non-lemma forms.

Noun

er

  1. Soft mutation of ger.

Crimean Tatar

Adjective

er

  1. every

Czech

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛr/

Noun

er n

  1. The name of the Latin-script letter R/r.

Danish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛr/, [æɐ̯]

Verb

er

  1. present tense of være

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛr/, /ər/, /dər/

Etymology 1

Weak form of der, the unstressed form of daar ("there")

Adverb

er

  1. there (unspecific to distance)
  2. (with a preposition) him, her, it, them.
    Ik heb ermee gewerkt.
    I have worked with it/them.
    Je **** er de bergen boven zien.
    You can see the mountains above it/them.
Usage notes
  • Er is an unstressed variety of hier and daar, used when it is not needed to emphasize the specific location relative to the speaker.
  • With a preposition, er is used instead of hem, haar, het, ze to create a pronominal adverb. See also Category:Dutch pronominal adverbs.

Etymology 2

From Old Dutch iro, genitive of the personal pronoun (3rd person plural).

Adverb

er

  1. (partitive pronoun) of them, of those (often not translated in English)
    Mijn broer heeft drie kinderen en ik heb er twee.
    My brother has three children and I have two. (literally: two of those)
    Ik zie er geen meer.
    I don't see any more (of them).
Synonyms
Derived terms

See Category:Dutch pronominal adverbs

Related terms
See also

Anagrams


Faroese

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [er]

Verb

er

  1. he, she, it is, 3rd person singular present form of vera (to be)

Conjugation


German

Etymology

From Old High German er, from Proto-Germanic *iz. Displaced the northern Old High German forms with h-, e.g. , her (see he).

Pronunciation

  • (standard) IPA(key): /eːɐ̯/, /ɛʁ/
  • Rhymes: -eːɐ̯
  • (colloquially in unstressed position) IPA(key): /ɐ/

Pronoun

er

  1. (personal) he.
    Wo ist Klaus? Wo ist er? Where is Klaus? Where is he?
    • Clemens Brentano, Geschichte vom braven Kasperl und dem schönen Annerl (edited). In: 1835, F. W. Gubitz (editor), Jahrbuch des Nützlichen und Unterhaltenden für 1835, p. 171:
      Da fuhr die Alte überraſcht auf und ſprach: Lieber Herr, gehe er doch nach Haus und bete er fein und lege er ſich ſchlafen.
  2. (personal) it (when the grammatical gender of the object/article/thing/animal etc., being referred to, is masculine (der)).
    Dies ist mein Hund. Er heißt Waldi. This is my dog. Its name is Waldi.
    Dort steht ein Baum. Er ist über hundert Jahre alt. There stands a tree. It is more than 100 years old.

Inflection

1Often capitalized, especially in letters

In contemporary German, the genitive forms of personal pronouns are restricted to formal style and are infrequent even then. They may be used

  • for the genitive object still found in a handful of verbs: Ich erbarmte mich seiner. – "I had mercy on him". (Colloquially one would either use the dative case, or a prepositional object, or replace the verb with another.)
  • after the preposition statt ("instead of, in place of"): Ich kam statt seiner in die Mannschaft. – I joined the team in his place. (This sounds antiquated, for which reason an seiner Statt or an seiner Stelle is preferable.)

Hunsrik

Alternative forms

  • ëyer (Portuguese based orthography)

Etymology

From Old High German er, from Proto-Germanic *iz. Displaced the northern Old High German forms with h-, e.g. , her (see he).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɛɐ/

Pronoun

er

  1. he

Inflection


Icelandic

Verb

er

  1. First-person singular indicative present form of vera.
    Ég er skemmtilegur.
    I am fun (masculine)
    Hver er ég?
    Who am I?
  2. Third-person singular indicative present form of vera.
    Veit einhver hvar pabbi minn er?
    Does anybody know where my dad is?
    Hver er hann?
    Who is he?

Pronoun

er

  1. (relative) which
    Maður er , er Jón heitir.
    There is a man who is named John.
    Konan, er hann var að tala við.
    The woman to whom he was talking.
    Þetta er borgin, er hann kom frá.
    This is the city from which he originated.
    Bærinn, er hún ætlar til.
    The town to which she's heading.
  2. (archaic) in relations with a demonstrative pronoun (this, that, these) or personal pronoun (I, we, they), which represents the genitive of a relative pronoun.
    Það er bók, er menn þekkja eigi höfund hennar.
    There is a book whose author people don't know.

Conjunction

er

  1. (with an "indexical"; ábendingarorð) of a place, of a time
    • Judges 2:19
      En er dómarinn andaðist, breyttu þeir að nýju verr en feður þeirra, með því að elta aðra guði til þess að þjóna þeim og falla fram fyrir þeim. Þeir létu eigi af gjörðum sínum né þrjóskubreytni sinni.
      But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
    Þar er ég kom.
    There whence I came.
    Þá er þegar myndin var búin.
    When the movie was finished.

Derived terms

  • þá er þegar

Latin

Etymology 1

From Proto-Italic *hēr, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰḗr (hedgehog) (whence also Ancient Greek χήρ (khḗr, hedgehog)), a root noun from *ǵʰer- (to be excited, be bristly), whence also Ancient Greek χοῖρος (khoîros, young pig) and Albanian derr (pig) from *ǵʰór-yos.[1]

Pronunciation

Noun

ēr m (genitive ēris); third declension

  1. hedgehog
Usage notes

There is some uncertainty as to the exact forms of this word, especially regarding whether the lemma form of this was ēr or ēris, as the forms attested in literature could point to either option. Another form, irim (acc. sing.; found in Plautus, Capt. 184), seems to be a spelling variant.

Inflection

Third declension.

Case Singular Plural
nominative ēr ērēs
genitive ēris ērum
dative ērī ēribus
accusative ērem ērēs
ablative ēre ēribus
vocative ēr ērēs
Related terms

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Noun

er (indeclinable)

  1. The name of the letter R.
Usage notes
  • Multiple Latin names for the letter R, r have been suggested. The most common is er or a syllabic r, although there is some evidence which also supports, as names for the letter, , rrr, ər, , and even (in the fourth- or fifth-century first Antinoë papyrus, which gives Greek transliterations of the Latin names of the Roman alphabet’s letters) ιρρε (irrhe).
Coordinate terms

References

  1. De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “ēr”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, page 193

Latvian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ɛɾ]

Noun

er m (invariable)

  1. The Latvian name of the Latin script letter R/r.

See also


Low German

Pronoun

er

  1. Alternative spelling of ehr

Mambae

Noun

er

  1. water

References

  • Mambai Language Manual: Ainaro Dialect (2001)

Mandarin

Romanization

er

  1. Nonstandard spelling of ér.
  2. Nonstandard spelling of ěr.
  3. Nonstandard spelling of èr.

Usage notes

  • English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Manx

Etymology

From Old Irish for.

Preposition

er

  1. on
  2. onto
  3. during
  4. for

Inflection

Singular Plural
Person 1st 2nd 3rd m. 3rd f. 1st 2nd 3rd
Normal orrym ort er urree orrin erriu orroo
Emphatic orryms orts ersyn urreeish orrinyn erriuish orroosyn

Pronoun

er

  1. 3rd person singular of er
    on him/it

Derived terms


Norwegian Bokmål

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /æːɾ/, /æɾ/

Verb

er

  1. present tense of være (=to be)

Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛːr/ (example of pronunciation)

Verb

er

  1. present tense of vera and vere

Old Dutch

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *airiz; see also ær. Cognate with Old Saxon ēr.

Adverb

er (ēr)

  1. previously, in an earlier period, in a bygone time
  2. earlier, before a certain time or period

Preposition

er (ēr)

  1. (temporal) before, earlier than

Conjunction

er (ēr)

  1. ere, afore

References

er in the INL database


Old Frisian

Pronoun

er

  1. he

Old High German

Etymology 1

From Proto-Germanic *airiz, whence also Old English ær.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /eːr/

Adjective

ēr

  1. early

Adverb

ēr

  1. ere, before
  2. formerly

Conjunction

ēr

  1. before, until

Preposition

ēr (+ dative)

  1. before

Etymology 2

From Proto-Germanic *aiz, akin to Old English ār, Old Norse eir.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /eːr/

Noun

ēr n

  1. ore
  2. brass

Etymology 3

From Proto-Germanic *iz (he), akin to Gothic 𐌹𐍃 (is, he), Latin is (he).

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /er/

Pronoun

er

  1. he
Descendants
  • Middle High German: er
    • German: er

References

  • Joseph Wright, An Old High German Primer

Old Norse

Etymology

From Old Norse es. The final -s was replaced by -r due to analogy to the plural forms of vera.

Pronoun

er

  1. who, which, that

Conjunction

er

  1. where
  2. when

Verb

er

  1. third-person singular indicative present tense of vera

Descendants

  • Faroese: er
  • Icelandic: er

References


Old Saxon

Etymology 1

From Proto-Germanic *airiz, whence also Old English ær.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /eɪr/

Adjective

ēr

  1. early
Declension


Adverb

ēr

  1. before, ere
  2. formerly

Conjunction

ēr

  1. before

Preposition

ēr (+ dative)

  1. before

Etymology 2

From Proto-Germanic *aiz, whence also Old English ār.

Noun

ēr ?

  1. copper, bronze
  2. ore

Polish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ɛr]

Noun

er

  1. genitive plural of era

Scots

Verb

er

  1. (South Scots) Second-person simple present form of ti be
  2. (South Scots) Plural simple present form of ti be
  3. (South Scots) First-person singular simple present form of an obscure form of ti be
    A'm er so!

Usage notes

Used emphatically. See ir.


Swedish

Etymology

Contraction of earlier eder, from Old Norse yðr, from Proto-Germanic *izwiz, dative/accusative of *jūz, from Proto-Indo-European *yū́.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /eːr/

Pronoun

er c (neuter possessive only ert, plural era)

  1. you (plural, object)
  2. (possessive) your, yours; (speaking to more than one person, about one object)
  3. (reflexive) of ni; compare yourselves
    Skulle ni vilja lära er jonglera?
    Would you guys like to learn how to juggle?

Usage notes

  • See ni for a note on its use as a courteous 2nd person singular.
  • Even though er (2) and its archaic form eder is the possessive pronoun, it does have a genitive form ers and eders, which is only used in expressions like ers majestät (your majesty) and ers höghet (your highness).

Declension


Turkish

Etymology 1

From Old Turkic er, from Proto-Turkic *ẹ̄r (early), which, according to the controversial Altaic hypothesis, is possibly derived from Proto-Altaic *ḗre (early).

Adjective

er

  1. early

References

Etymology 2

From Old Turkic er, from Proto-Turkic *ēr (man), which, according to the controversial Altaic hypothesis, is possibly derived from Proto-Altaic *ā́ri (~ *ḗra) (man). Related to noun-forming suffix -er.

Noun

er (definite accusative eri, plural erler)

  1. brave
  2. man, male
  3. noble
  4. conscript, private (soldier of the lowest rank of the army)
  5. tribesman
  6. warrior
Declension

Verb

er

  1. reach (imperative)

References


West Frisian

Pronoun

er

  1. he

Usage notes

  • (he): Er is used before the object of the sentence or after the verb, if there is one. It is never the first word of a sentence.
    • Doe't er in swolch naam -- "When he took a swallow", (literally "When he a swallow took")

Especially in narrative, er is used in the past tense. In other cases, hy is used.