Definition of "one"

Venters began to count them—one—two—three—four—on up to sixteen.

1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 8, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers

One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do / Two can be as bad as one / It's the loneliest number since the number one

1968, Harry Nilsson (lyrics and music), “One”, in Aerial Ballet

Which happies thoſe that pay the willing lone; / That's for thy ſelfe to breed an other thee / Or ten times happier be it ten for one, […]

1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 6”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley

Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations‎

It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.

1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […]

She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […] — all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.

1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, in The Mirror and the Lamp‎

‘It's rather like a beautiful Inverness cloak one has inherited. Much too good to hide away, so one wears it instead of an overcoat and pretends it's an amusing new fashion.’

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess‎

With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get […].

1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, page vii

One has to admire the sheer optimism of modern science: I love the fact that there is such a discipline as astrobiology, whose practitioners' task is to imagine what life might be like on other planets. Yet here on the home planet we have profoundly strange aliens of our own.

2013 September 6, Philip Hoare, “If we're all Martians, who are the aliens?”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 13, page 48

Pause. They look meaningly at one another. / "You are a one for being roundabout," says the lady.

1905, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul, London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, page 55

When you love a woman then tell her / that she's really wanted / When you love a woman then tell her that she's the one / 'cause she needs somebody to tell her / that it's gonna last forever

1995, Bryan Adams, Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?

Finally got Ollie Martin. He couldn't have more poise, and what do I care if he is one?

1933 March 25, Dorothy Parker, “The Diary of a Lady”, in The New Yorker‎, page 13

One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.

Toldyng of temporell ordinaunce, assembled and oned in the lokyng of the Divine thoughte(please add an English translation of this quotation)

c. 1382 (date written)​, Geffray Chaucer [i.e., Geoffrey Chaucer], “Boetius de consolatione Philosophie”, in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London: […] Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], published 1542

The question, of course, evokes discernment, not dogma, but we should note that the "unknowing" involves intellectual knowledge, whereas the problematic of being "oned" involves experiential knowledge.

1994, Christopher Nugent, Mysticism, Death and Dying, page 55

And both shall be oned in eternal happiness.

2000, Carolyn Baker, The Journey of Forgiveness: Fulfilling the Healing Process, page 145

Knit and oned to God human beings are irrevocably in relationship with the divine.

2003, Elizabeth MacKinlay, Mental Health and Spirituality in Later Life, page 83

What might be if we were Oned? United, as we would say, but at a greater depth than being a season ticket holder in a football club, or a shareholder in some conglomerate.

2019, David Grieve, Love in Thin Places: Confessions of a Cathedral Chaplain, page 43

‘My boyfriends very possessive one. They don’t allow me to wear clothes I want, do things I want,’ she laments.

2000 February 14, Patricia Mok, The Straits Times, Singapore, Life!, page 5

Why so special one?

2004, Ethical Egoist, soc.culture.singapore (Usenet)

ooooooooooar! you own self admit one har! i never say one har!

2011, Singrish King, soc.culture.singapore (Usenet)