ownsome

English

Etymology

From own +‎ -some. Apparent noun use is due to ellipsis.

Adjective

ownsome (comparative more ownsome, superlative most ownsome)

1. Marked by possession, ownership, or belonging; proper.
   • 1939, Harriet Monroe, Morton Dauwen Zabel, George Dillon, Poetry, volumes 53-54, page 110:

     Ranging somebody else's ownsome ground,
     Lacking somebody else's thrill,
     Haunting somebody else's too profound,
     Just a-ghosting for somebody else!

   • 2010, Ardath Mayhar, Robert Reginald, Slaughterhouse World, page 192:

     I was doin' what I had to do to save my cares, those that still breathed, and if this cost me my ownsome life, well, that was the price that I had to pay.

   • 2014, Ivo De Gennaro, The Weirdness of Being:

     This mother-diction engenders the mother-language as such (and therefore the ownsome wyrd of a manhood) in that it firmly hands over the speaking of that language unto its wyrdly biding as a say of en-owning.

   • 2016, B. Spurr, See the Virgin Blest: The Virgin Mary in English Poetry, page 61:

     The second joy that Mary had,
     It was the joy of two,
     To see her ownsome Jesus
     To make the lame to go.

Noun

ownsome (plural ownsomes)

1. (informal) One's own; one's lonesome.

   Am I going to have to go there on my ownsome?

   • 2019, Kevin Barry, Night Boat to Tangier, New York: Doubleday, →ISBN, page 162:

     Nelson Lavin had been a month at home on his ownsome watching Judge Judy at five in the morning.