Er

See also: Appendix:Variations of "er"

Translingual

Symbol

Er

1. (chemistry) Chemical symbol for erbium.

English

Etymology

From Turkish Er, or from Hokkien 余 (Îr) or Teochew 余 (e5).

Proper noun

Er (countable and uncountable, plural Ers)

1. A surname.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Er is the 61,436^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 327 individuals. Er is most common among White (63.91%) and Asian/Pacific Islander individuals (26.3%).

German

Alternative forms

• er (for the pronoun; common spelling)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eːɐ̯/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

Er m

1. a person or animal of male gender, a male

   Synonym: Männchen

   Antonym: Sie f

Pronoun

Er

1. (archaic) you (form of address to a male person of lower social standing than the speaker)

   Was möchte Er von mir?

   What do you want from me?

   (literally, “What does he want from me?”)

   • 1821, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre [Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years]‎^[1], volume 3:

     Der alte Herr empfing mich mit großer Gravität, besah mich von oben bis unten, als ob er meine Geschicklichkeit aus mir herausphysiognomieren wollte. "Versteht Er Sein Handwerk?" sagte er zu mir.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

This form of address sounds very archaic and is only used humorously or in some dialects (especially Berlin, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg), sometimes called Berliner Er. The common polite form of address is Sie.

Derived terms

• erzen

Further reading

• “Er” in Duden online
• “Er” in Duden online
• “Er” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Tocharian B

Etymology

Borrowed from Old Uyghur Er (“man”). Compare Turkish Er, Kyrgyz Erjan, and many other Turkic names.

Proper noun

Er m

1. a male given name

Further reading

• Adams, Douglas Q. (2013) “Er”, in A Dictionary of Tocharian B: Revised and Greatly Enlarged (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 10), Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, →ISBN, page 98

Turkish

Proper noun

Er

1. a male given name