ance

See also: -ance and Ance

Scots

Alternative forms

• aince, eence
• anes, anis
• yance, yence, yince, yinst
• wance, wanst

Etymology

From Middle English ones, from Old English ānes.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ens/, /eins/, /ins/
• IPA^(key): /jɑns/, /jɛns/, /jɪns/, /jɪnst/
• IPA^(key): /wans/, /wɑns/, /wɑnst/

Adverb

ance (not comparable)

1. once
   • a. 1805, Jane Elliot, “A Lament for Flodden”, in English Poets of the Eighteenth Century‎:

     The English, for ance, by guile wan the day; The Flowers of the Forest, that fought aye the foremost, The prime of our land, lie cauld in the clay.

   • 1818 July 25, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter VI, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC, page 151:

     Hegh, sirs! but we are a hopefu' family, to be twa o' us in the Guard at ance—But there were better days wi' us ance—were there na, mither?

   • 1871 July – 1873 February, Anthony Trollope, “Lady Eustace Procures a Pony for the Use of Her Cousin”, in The Eustace Diamonds. A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1872, →OCLC, page 104, column 1:

     Pownies ain't to be had for nowt in Ayrshire, as was ance, my leddie.

Derived terms

• ance errand

References

• “ance, adv., conj.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.