Forms: 1 we, wé, Northumb. woe, 2 weo, hwe, 4–5 whe, 5 whee, 4–7 wee, Sc. ve, 2– we. Also 7 rarely w’ (before a vowel or h). [Com. Teut.: OE. wē corresponds to OFris. wî (WFris. wi, wy, NFris. wi, we, wü), OS. wī, wê, MDu. wî (mod.Du. wij), OHG. wir, wêr, wier (MHG., mod.G. wir), ON. vér, vær (Sw., Da. vi), Goth. weis.
These forms seem to go back to more than one OTeut. type. The Gothic form represents OTeut. *wīz:—pre-Teut. *weis, an extension (with nominative suffix -s) of Indogermanic *wei found in Skr. vayám, Avestic vaēm, we. With regard to the OE., ON. and some other forms, there is difference of opinion, some scholars referring them to an ablaut-variant (either *wĕ-z or *wē-z) of *wī-z, and others to a pre-Teut. *wĕ of which *wei is supposed to be an extension by the addition of a demonstrative particle.]
1. The pronoun of the first person plural nominative, denoting the speaker and one or more other persons whom he associates with himself as the subject of the sentence.
For the obsolete dual see WIT pron. For emphasized compounds see OURSELF 2, OURSELVES 2.
Beowulf, 260. We synt gumcynnes Ʒeata leode.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Luke xxii. 71. And hiʓ cwædon: hwi ʓyrne we ʓyt ʓewitnesse? sylfe we ʓehyrdon of hys muðe.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 1690–1. Ah hit was unker uoreward Þo we come hiderward Þat we þarto holde scholde Þar riht dom us ȝiue wolde.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 4820. ‘Childer,’ he said, ‘weþen are yee?’ ‘Sir, wee are o farr cuntre.’
1382. Wyclif, 2 Thess. i. 4. So that we silf glorien in ȝou.
c. 1420. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. xxxiii. 5785. Ȝhe se þat þai ar ma þan we.
c. 1460. Oseney Reg., 174. Vppon the texte whee sware, both I and my wiffe.
1640. J. Gower, Ovid’s Festiv., I. 8. Gold-temples please us, though the old w’ approve.
1673. Hickeringill, Greg. F. Greyb., 142.
| Keep your Loof, Hold; w’have sprung a Mast; | |
| This ’tis to bear more sail than Ballast. |
1697. Dryden, Æneis, XI. 392. We; (for myself I speak, and all the Name Of Grecians, who to Troy’s Destruction came).
1847. Helps, Friends in C., I. vii. 103. A thorough perception of the simple fact, that they are not we.
1879. Miss Braddon, Cloven Foot, xx. ‘We must have everything ready for him.’ ‘So we will, ma’am, spick and span,’ answered Mrs. Trimmer.
b. following, as subject, a verb in the subjunctive mood; = let us (do something). Now only rhet. or poet.
971. Blickl. Hom., 11. Arweorþian we Crist on binne asetene.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 177 (Cott.). Ac lete we awei þos cheste.
a. 1300. K. Horn, 1527. Make we vs glade eure among.
13[?]. Guy Warw., 5060. ‘Lordinges,’ he seyd, ‘ginneþ ȝou armi, & gin whe hem to asaily.’
c. 1325. Metr. Hom., 53. Forthi I red we it forsak, And hald we us in rihtwisnes.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, VII. xv. 235. Noo leue we the knyghte and the dwerf, and speke we of Beaumayns.
1540. Palsgr., Acolastus, I. iv. G iv. Go we in adores.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. ii. 6. Put we our quarrell to the will of heauen.
1657–83. Evelyn, Hist. Relig. (1850), I. 33. Consider we, first, the structure of his body.
1814. Wordsw., Excurs., VIII. 391. Turn we then To Britons born and bred within the pale Of civil polity.
c. defined or made precise by some qualifying word or phrase.
a. 900. Cynewulf, Crist, 746. Swa we men sculon heortan ʓehyʓdum hlypum styllan.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 35. Wee caytiefe Troians.
a. 1596. Sir T. More, I. i. 121. And if you men durst not vndertake it, before God, we women would.
1605. Shaks., Macb., I. i. 1. When shall we three meet againe?
1612. R. Ch., Olde Thrift newly revived, 39. I must confesse that we poore Farmers … doe exclaime against Inclosures.
1631. Chapman, Cæsar & Pompey, I. B 3 b. Met. … We will haue the army Of Pompey entred. Cato. We? which we intend you? Haue you already bought the peoples voices?
1702. De Foe, Shortest Way w. Dissenters, 23. We of the Church of England.
1751. F. Coventry, Pompey the Little, I. iii. 27. We Girls are under so many Restraints.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xlii. ‘We in the City know you better,’ replied Carker.
1865. Mrs. Whitney, Gayworthys, xl. Mother, we two must make our wills.
1883. J. W. Sherer, At Home & in India, 99. She must have been what we westerns should call a child.
1918. Act 8 Geo. V., c. 1. We, Your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of the United Kingdom … in Parliament assembled.
d. qualified by a prefixed adj. poet.
[1607, 1635: see 3.]
1646. Crashaw, Steps to Temple, 27 (Ps. 137). While unhappy captiv’d wee Lovely Sion thought on thee.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, V. 810. O wretched we, whom not the Grecian Pow’r, Nor Flames destroy’d, in Troy’s unhappy hour!
e. used confidentially or playfully to mean the person addressed, with whose interests the speaker thus identifies himself; esp. by a doctor in friendly or cheering address to a patient.
1702. Vanbrugh, False Friend, I. i. C 3. Well, old Acquaintance, we are going to be Married then?
1834. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Boarding-ho., ii. ‘Well, my dear ma’am, and how are we?’ inquired [Doctor] Wosky, in a soothing tone.
1884. Harper’s Mag., Dec., 172/2. Well, Jane, and how are we this morning?
f. used indefinitely in general statements in which the speaker or writer includes those whom he addresses, his contemporaries, his fellow-countrymen, or the like.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 442. On ðisum wræcfullum life we sceolon earmra manna helpan.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 247–8. Giue we ilkan þare langage, Me think we do þam non outrage.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 408–10. We seken faste after felicitee, But we goon wrong ful often trewely. Thus may we seyn alle and namely I.
a. 1450. Le Morte Arth., 2363. Launcelot hyr brydelle ledde, In the romans as we rede.
a. 1500. Hist. K. Boccus & Sydracke (? 1510), P ij. And yf they [sc. fishes] felt the ayre also As we or foules or beastes do.
1612. in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1914), XXIX. 251. Yf we should have any difference with Spaine (as happely wee may have before wee looke for yt).
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 512, ¶ 1. There is nothing which we receive with so much Reluctance as Advice.
1752. J. Hill, Hist. Anim., 263. The Swedes and Danes call it Fjarsing:… the French, Viver; and we, the Weever.
1845. Carlyle, Cromwell (1871), II. 7. Of Sheriff Morgan … we have no farther notice whatever.
1865. Ruskin, Sesame, i. I say first we have despised literature. What do we, as a nation, care about books?
1875. Jevons, Money (1878), 25. In ordinary life we use a great many words with a total disregard of logical precision.
1876. Stedman, Victorian Poets, vi. 183. He is well broken, as we say of a thoroughbred.
2. Used by a single person to denote himself:
a. by a sovereign or ruler. Often defined by the name or title added.
Beowulf, 958. Beowulf maþelode…: We þæt ellenweorc … feohtan fremedon.
c. 1425. Eng. Conq. Irel. (1896), 6. We, dermot, prince of leynester.
1436. Hen. VI., in Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., Var. Coll. IV. 199. We forse alle the gret discoragyng and discomfort that mygte growe to oure trwe sugectis.
1482. in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1910), XXV. 122. We Elizabeth abbas of þe Monastere of Syon … wylle and ordeyne that [etc.].
1603. Jas. I., in Rymer Fœdera (1705), XVI. 538. Wee, Myndinge of our Royall and absolute Power to Us commytted, to visitt [etc.].
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., II. iv. 71. Sir, I am about to weepe; but thinking that we are a Queene [etc.].
1642. Chas. I., in Clarendon, Hist. Reb., V. § 20. In plain English, it is to take away the freedom of our vote; which were we but a subject were high injustice; but being your king, we leave all the world to judge what it is.
1835. Lytton, Rienzi, IV. vii. Noticed you the we—the style royal?
1850. Wiseman, Pastoral, 7 Oct. In that same Consistory we were enabled ourselves to ask for the Archiepiscopal Pallium, for our new See of Westminster.
1872. Tennyson, Gareth & Lynette, 362. But Arthur, ‘We sit King, to help the wrong’d Thro’ all our realm.’
b. by a speaker or writer, in order to secure an impersonal style and tone, or to avoid the obtrusive repetition of ‘I.’
Regularly so used in editorial and unsigned articles in newspapers and other periodicals, where the writer is understood to be supported in his opinions and statements by the editorial staff collectively.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., I. i. § 11. Nu hæbbe we scortlice ʓesæd ymbe Asia londʓemæro.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 556. We mihton ðas halʓan rædinge meniʓfealdlicor trahtnian.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 265. Now o þis proloug wil we blin.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, I. 295. The second sone of Penda, we meane kynge Wulfere.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, I. xix. (Arb.), 36. We our selues who compiled this treatise.
1610. Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, II. xviii. 133. Should we particularize, wee should become a direct Historiographer.
1807. Copleston, Advice to Yng. Reviewer, 1. There is a mysterious authority in the plural we, which no single name, whatever may be its reputation, can acquire.
1836. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Criminal Courts. We shall never forget the mingled feelings of awe and respect with which we used to gaze on the exterior of Newgate in our schoolboy days.
1860. Leader, 11 Feb. The volume that we have now before us.
1879. T. P. O’Connor, Beaconsfield, xiv. 576–7. In this official report [of his speech] the vain-glorious and significant ‘I’ is toned down to the softer and less candid ‘we.’
c. Hence jocularly as quasi-sb.: The editor of a periodical, or a contributor who uses this style; the periodical itself.
1853. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, ix. It reached the ears of the great Mr. Seedeyman, the mighty we of the country, as he sat in his den penning his ‘stunners’ for his market-day Mercury.
1866. Chambers’s Jrnl., 15 Dec., 788/2. Not only was I myself overwhelmed by these accounts of foreign travel, when I was a We, but I noticed [etc.].
1902. G. Paston, in Monthly Rev., Aug., 122. Yet the two great ‘Wes’ of the eighteenth century, the ‘Monthly’ and the ‘Critical’ played no unimportant part in the literary education of our great-grandparents.
3. Used for the accus. us (now only by the uneducated). Cf. LET v.1 14 b.
c. 1500. Melusine, xix. 106. Lete we send for the two knightes.
1553. Respublica, III. iii. 682. People … He fliereth on youe & beareth vs faire in hande And therewhile robbeth bothe youe & we of oure Lande.
1607. Shaks., Cor., V. iii. 103. And to poore we Thine enmities most capitall.
1635. R. Carew, in Lismore Papers (1888), Ser. II. III. 222. Those … fauours … vouthsafed vnto poore immeritinge we.
1782. Cowper, John Gilpin, 16. So you must ride On horseback after we.
1883. D. C. Murray, Hearts, xxxii. Not as ever you was proud to folks like we.
1890. Bickley, Surrey Hills, III. 207. He a’ never disappinted we afore, why should ’un now? Ibid., 209. Maister Fenton ain’t here yet, so let we have another hymn.
