yon

See also: Yon, yön, þon, and -yon

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English yon, from Old English ġeon, from Proto-Germanic *jainaz.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /jɒn/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /jɑn/
• Rhymes: -ɒn
• Homophone: yawn (with cot-caught merger)

Adjective

yon (not comparable)

1. (dated or dialectal) That (thing) over there; of something distant, but within sight.

   He went to climb yon hill.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     Read thy lot in yon celestial sign.

   • 1856, Herman Melville, The Lightning Rod Man:

     " […] Yet first let me close yonder shutters; the slanting rain is beating through the sash. I will bar up." "Are you mad? Know you not that yon iron bar is a swift conductor? Desist."

   • 2012 Spring, Gerda Stevenson, “Federer versus Murray”, in Salmagundi:

     His head... his head... his face... it wisnae there. Nae black curly hair, nae eyes - I've never seen eyes sae blue as Joe's. Irises blue as yon sky. Blown tae smithereens... his gorgeous, bonny head, no there.

Translations

that thing, distant, but within sight

• Finnish: tuo (fi)
• German: jener (de) m, jene (de) f, jenes (de) n, jene (de) pl
• Gothic: 𐌾𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (jains)
• Greek: εκείνος (el) m (ekeínos)

• Japanese: あの (ja) (ano), あれ (ja) (are)
• Korean: 저것 (ko) (jeogeot)
• Portuguese: aquilo (pt) n, aquela (pt) f, aquele (pt) m
• Russian: вон тот (von tot)

Adverb

yon (not comparable)

1. (dated or dialectal) yonder.

Pronoun

yon

1. (dated or dialectal) That one or those over there.

Etymology 2

Phrase

yon

1. (knitting) Acronym of yarn over needle.
   • 2006, Heather Dixon, Not Your Mama's Knitting (page 222)

     Buttonhole row: (K1, p1) 3 times, yon, k2tog, (k1,p1) 5 times, yon, k2tog, […]

Anagrams

• noy

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Haitian Creole

Etymology

Maybe a contraction of French il y a un.

Article

yon

1. a, an; the indefinite article

Usage notes

Yon always precedes the noun it modifies, unlike most adjectives.

Related terms

• a
• an
• la
• lan
• nan
• yo

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Japanese

Romanization

yon

1. Rōmaji transcription of よん

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Kok-Paponk

Pronoun

yon

1. you; second-person singular pronoun

References

• 2008, Paul Black, Pronominal Accretions in Pama-Nyungan, in Morphology and Language History →ISBN, edited by Claire Bowern, Bethwyn Evans, Luisa Miceli)

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Scots

Alternative forms

• thon

Etymology

From Middle English yon, from Old English ġeon, from Proto-Germanic *jainaz. Compare English yon and German jener.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [jon]
• (North Northern Scots, Orcadian) IPA^(key): [jɪn]
• (Shetlandic) IPA^(key): [jʌn]

Adjective

yon (not comparable)

1. that, those, yonder (indicating a person or thing at some distance in time or space usually more remote than that)

Pronoun

yon

1. that one person or thing, etc.
2. those

Adverb

yon (not comparable)

1. yonder, over there, further away
2. thither, to that place

Derived terms

• yonwey (“yonder way”)

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Tatar

Etymology

From Proto-Turkic *juŋ. Compare Kazakh жүн (jün, “wool, fur, feather”).

Noun

yon

1. feather