1895: The Creation of *Nous* Pronouns Feb 22, 2020

Pronouns are considered a closed lexical class, meaning it is particularly difficult to create new ones, and as a result, new meanings tend to come from other pronouns. This process is rare and slow, but in the case of the French 'on' in some informal settings it can be said to be replacing 'nous' as the 1st person plural pronoun. However, this didn't come out of thin air, as it also means 'one', as in the indefinite 3rd person pronoun. That sense didn't come out of nowhere either, and originated from the Latin 'homo' ('person') like the modern 'homme' ('man').

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