definite numeral. Obs. or dial. A pocopate form of an, ane, used only before a consonant. [OE. án, one, of which the n began to disappear before a cons. about 1150. In the definite numeral sense, án and á, following the ordinary course of OE. long á, became in the south bef. 1300, on (oon, one), o (oo); and eventually o became obs., leaving one as the form in all positions; while an and a, pronounced lightly and indistinctly, became the ‘indefinite article.’ See next word. But in the north an (or ane) and a were written in both senses, the stress or emphasis alone distinguishing the numeral from the article.] See AN(E, O a., and ONE.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 39. Ure drihten drof fele deules togedere ut of á man, þe was of his wit.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 5955. An eighe he had in his vys, And a foot, and no moo I wys.
c. 1350. Hampole, Prose Tr., 32. Some ere of a tre and some er of anoþer.
1483. Caxton, Geoffroi de la Tour, lf. iiii b. They satte att dyner in a hall and the quene in another.
A in the various forms a, ae, eae, eea, yea, yà, is still the regular form of the numeral one when used adjectively, in the northern dialects, the absolute form being an, ane, ean, yen, yàn, etc.
