The number 1; used to refer to a single person or thing, or sometimes people in general.
From Old English "ān" meaning "one, single," related to German "ein" and Latin "unus." It comes from an ancient root that also gives English "only" and "alone."
The words "one," "only," and "alone" are linguistic cousins, all circling the idea of singleness. Mathematically, 1 is the building block of counting, but grammatically it’s also how English turns numbers into identities: "the one," "no one," "someone."
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