OpenEtymology

yours

UKjɔːzUSjɔːrz

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Meaning

1pron

used to refer to something belonging to or connected with the person or people that the speaker is addressing.

2pron

used in conventional endings of letters.

Usage

is this book yours?

my coat is black, and yours is blue.

sincerely yours,

Etymology

The word "yours" is the possessive form of the second-person pronoun "you". Its development traces back through Middle English "youres", which was formed by adding the possessive suffix "-s" to the pronoun "your". "your" itself originates from Old English "ēower", the genitive form of "gē" (the plural "you"). This Old English pronoun has Germanic roots, ultimately deriving from the Proto-Germanic "jūz", related to the proto-indo-European "yū́" (second-person plural pronoun). The evolution from a simple genitive case form in Old English to a distinct, standalone possessive pronoun in Modern English illustrates the grammatical shift from a more inflectional system to one relying on analytic constructions. The logic of "yours" is inherently relational, directly and exclusively indicating possession by the addressee(s).

Analysis

The word is a possessive pronoun form derived from the pronoun "you". It is not productively segmented into smaller, meaningful morphemes in Modern English.

Yours Meaning, Examples & Word Origin | OpenEtymology