ownsome

adj, noun — 2 senses

ownsome

adj

Etymology From own + -some. Apparent noun use is due to ellipsis.

1

Marked by possession, ownership, or belonging; proper.

  • Ranging somebody else's ownsome ground, Lacking somebody else's thrill, Haunting somebody else's too profound, Just a-ghosting for somebody else!1939, Harriet Monroe, Morton Dauwen Zabel, George Dillon, Poetry, volumes 53-54, page 110:
  • I was doin' what I had to do to save my cares, those that still breathed, and if this cost me my ownsome life, well, that was the price that I had to pay.2010, Ardath Mayhar, Robert Reginald, Slaughterhouse World, page 192:
2 more examples
  • This mother-diction engenders the mother-language as such (and therefore the ownsome wyrd of a manhood) in that it firmly hands over the speaking of that language unto its wyrdly biding as a say of en-owning.2014, Ivo De Gennaro, The Weirdness of Being:
  • The second joy that Mary had, It was the joy of two, To see her ownsome Jesus To make the lame to go.2016, B. Spurr, See the Virgin Blest: The Virgin Mary in English Poetry, page 61:

ownsome

noun

Etymology From own + -some. Apparent noun use is due to ellipsis.

1

Informal One's own; one's lonesome.

  • Am I going to have to go there on my ownsome?
  • Nelson Lavin had been a month at home on his ownsome watching Judge Judy at five in the morning.2019, Kevin Barry, Night Boat to Tangier, New York: Doubleday, →ISBN, page 162:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.