of
UK[ɒv]US[əv]
prep
used to show possession, belonging, or origin
prep
used to show what something contains, is made from, or relates to
prep
used after words or phrases expressing amount, number, or a particular unit
Etymology
The word 'of' is a function word of Germanic origin, a direct descendant of the Old English preposition 'of'. This Old English term itself evolved from the Proto-Germanic 'ab', which carried the core senses of "away, away from." This Germanic root is further traced back to the Proto-Indo-European 'h₂epó', also meaning "off, away." The semantic journey from the concrete idea of separation ("away from") to the modern, highly abstract preposition indicating relationships like possession, origin, and association is a classic example of grammaticalization, where a word with full lexical meaning evolves into a grammatical marker.
Analysis
N/A
Examples
The pages of the book were torn.
She is a friend of my brother.
He drank a cup of tea.