one (out of several) · someone, somebody, anyone, anybody · (colloquial) (a) somebody (someone singular or notable, i.e., who stands apart from most others in importance, skill, merit, etc.)
köken: Univerbation of quelque (“some”) + un (“one”). Akin to Italian qualcuno.
köken: From Middle Dutch ieman, iemant, from Old Dutch ieman, *ioman. A compound of io (“always, ever”) + man (“man, person”), from Proto-West Germanic *aiw + *mann. Compare German jemand, Old English ǣġhwā.
köken: From late Old Swedish naghan, from earlier nokon, accusative of Old Swedish nokor, from Old Norse nǫkkurr, from Proto-Norse *ne-wait-ek-hwarjaʀ (literally, "not-know-I-who"). Cognate with Norwegian Nynorsk nokon, Danish nogen, Faroese nakar, Icelandic nokkur, Norwegian Bokmål noen.
köken: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷ- Proto-Indo-European *kʷís Proto-Indo-European *kʷídder. Proto-Slavic *česo Old Polish co Proto-Indo-European *ḱe Proto-Indo-European *ís Proto-Indo-European *ḱís Proto-Balto-Slavic *śís Proto-Slavic *sьder. Old Polish -ś Old Polish coś Polish coś Inherited from Old Polish coś. By surface analysis, co + -ś. Compare Kashubian cos and Slovincian cesz.
something (inanimate singular) · a little, a bit · somethings, some people (animate/inanimate plural (some))
köken: From Old Hindi कछु (kachu) undergoing metathesis, from Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀓𑀺𑀁𑀘𑀺 (kiṃci); see there for more. Cognate with Bengali কিছু (kichu) and Punjabi ਕੁਝ (kujh). Originally the neuter nominative singular form of a paradigm whose masculine form became कोई (koī) and genitive form became किसी (kisī). See 𑀓𑁄𑀇 (koi) and 𑀓𑀲𑁆𑀲𑀇 (kassaï) for more.
köken: From Old Danish nokær, nogher, noghen, from Old Norse nǫkkurr, cognate with Norwegian Nynorsk nokon and Swedish någon. Grammaticalization of the phrase Proto-Germanic *ne wait ek hwarjaz (“I don't know who = somebody”). For the expression, compare Old English nāthwylc (“somebody”) (from *ne wāt hwylċ), Middle High German neizwer (“somebody”) (from *ne weiz wer), Latin nescio quis (“somebody”).…