† Ane

a. Obs. or dial. [representing sundry parts and uses of the adj. ONE, OE. án.]

  1.  án-e: Various inflected forms of án ‘one’: in OE. the acc. sing. fem., nom. and acc. pl. of indef. decl., and nom. and acc. sing. fem. and neut. of def. decl.; in early ME. representing other earlier inflections, esp. dat. sing. m. and n., but used chiefly as the def. form, and after the sb. = ‘only’: see ONE.

879.  O. E. Chron. Aþiestrode sió sunne áne tíd dæʓes.

a. 1000.  Cædmon, Gen., 2134. Nymðe feá áne.

c. 1000.  Andreas, 492. Is þys áne má.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 35. Bi-foren þam preoste ane.

c. 1220.  Hali Meid., 7. Serue Godd ane. Ibid., 25. Al … oðer ane deale.

  2.  In ME., north. dial., common variant of an (ane = ān, with mute e indicating long vowel), the full form of the numeral used absol. or attrib. bef. a vowel (bef. a const. reduced to a); also occas. of the weakened numeral or ‘indef. article’ bef. a vowel, the stress alone distinguishing the two senses (as in Ger. ein and Fr. un). See AN adj.¹

c. 1340.  Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 3109. Þe body with flesshe and bane Es harder þan þe saul by it ane. Ibid. (c. 1340), Prose Treat., 8. Ane es þat sche es neuer ydill.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, V. 24. Rouit alwayis in-till ane.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., VII. v. 98. This is ane of my Ladyis Pynnys.

  3.  In 16th c. Sc., the literary representative of earlier ane, an, and a, in all positions, alike as numeral and indefinite article. = ONE, an, a.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., II. ix. 8. Ane honest man and of gud fame.

a. 1530[?].  Peebles to Play, 51. Ane young man … With ane bow and ane bolt.

1535.  Stewart, Cron. Scotl., I. 3. Ane profound clerk is he.

1578.  Ps. li. in Sc. Poems 16th C., II. 120. Ane sweit humble hert.

1588.  A. King, trans. Canisius’ Catech., 124. Sic a ane as makis nocht ane man gods enimie.

  4.  In mod. Sc. and north dial., the absolute form of the numeral one (pron. ēn, īn, ī’n, yin, yen, yen, yæn, yan); the adj. form bef. either vowel or const. being a, ae (pron. ē, i, ī’, yī, yē, yē, yǣ, yā). Onc.

c. 1620.  A. Hume, Orthog. Brit. Tong. (1865), 33. Ane is a noun of number.

1782.  Clunzee, in Burns, Wks., I. 364. I loe nae a laddie but ane.

a. 1796.  Burns, Wks. (Moxon), 476. Oh, let me in this ae night, This ae, ae, ae night.

1826.  J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 177. At ane and the same time.