alone

From Middle English allone, from earlier Middle English al one (“alone”, literally “all one”), contracted from the Old English phrase eall āna (“entirely alone, solitary, single”), equivalent to al- (“all”) +‎ one. Cognate with Scots allane (“alone”), Saterland Frisian alleene (“alone”), West Frisian allinne (“alone”), Dutch alleen (“alone”), Low German alleen (“alone”), German allein (“alone”), Danish alene (“alone”), Swedish allena (“alone”). More at all, one.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈləʊn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /əˈloʊn/, enPR: ə-lōnʹ
• (Hong Kong) IPA^(key): /ɐˈluŋ/

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• Rhymes: -əʊn
• Hyphenation: a‧lone
• one and once are pronounced differently from the related words alone, only and atone. Stressed vowels often become diphthongs over time (Latin bona → Italian buona and Spanish buena), and this happened in the late Middle Ages to the words one and once, first recorded ca 1400: the vowel underwent some changes, from ōn → ōōōn → wōn → wōōn → wŏŏn → wŭn.

alone (comparative more alone, superlative most alone)

1. By oneself, solitary.

   I can't ask for help because I am alone.

   • 1611, King James Version, Genesis ii. 18

     It is not good that the man should be alone.

   • 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

     Alone on a wide, wide sea.

2. Apart from, or exclusive of, others.

   Jones alone could do it.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Richard Bentley

     God, by whose alone power and conversation we all live, and move, and have our being.

3. Considered separately.
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0029:

     “[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”

   • 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:

     In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.

4. Without equal.
   • 2013 August 23, Ian Traynor, “Rise of Europe's new autocrats”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 11, page 1:

     Hungary's leader is not alone in eastern and southern Europe, where democratically elected populist strongmen increasingly dominate, deploying the power of the state and a battery of instruments of intimidation to crush dissent, demonise opposition, tame the media and tailor the system to their ends.

5. (obsolete) Unique; rare; matchless.
   • c. 1589–1593, Shakespeare, William, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 2, scene 4, lines 163–165:

     Pardon me, Proteus, all I can is nothing / To her, whose worth makes other worthies nothing; / She is alone.

• Used after what it modifies.

• stand-alone

alone (not comparable)

1. By oneself; apart from, or exclusive of, others; solo.

   Synonyms: by one's lonesome, lonelily, on one's lonesome, singlely, solitarily, solo; see also Thesaurus:solitarily

   She walked home alone.

2. Without outside help.

   Synonyms: by oneself, by one's lonesome, on one's lonesome, singlehanded, singlehandedly; see also Thesaurus:by oneself

   The job was too hard for me to do alone.

3. Exclusively.

   Synonyms: entirely, solely; see also Thesaurus:solely

   The responsibility is theirs alone.

• Unlike most focusing adverbs, alone typically appears after a noun phrase.

  Only the teacher knew vs. The teacher alone knew

• alonely
• leave alone
• let alone

• Enola, Leano, Leona, NOAEL, anole

From Latin halo.

alone m (plural aloni)

1. halo
2. glow

• anelo, anelò