c1305 St. Lucy 60 in E.E.P. (1862) 103To seinte Lucie norice he wende: and eschte hire faste ‘What Lucie were so *onbicome’. 
c1315 Shoreham Poems (E.E.T.S.) 146/487Hyt on-by-come ine eche place Ȝef ech yng hadde ylyche grace To ioye and blysse. [ þ] 
1664 Flodden F. iv. 40 Then each Captain he did *oncry. 
1898 T. Hardy Wessex Poems 83By Joidoigne, near to east, as he *ondrew, Dawn pierced the humid air. 
1513 Douglas æneis xi.Prol. 102Rays hie the targe of faith vp in thi hand, On hed the halsum helm of hop *onlace. 
a1875 J. W. Miles in Schaff & Gilman Libr. Relig. Poetry (1881) 35That all his shattered aims, his hopes bewept, Are in God's counsels deep and fathomless *onswept. 
1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 3548Þat hii nuste hou *on take , ne wat for honger do. [ v.r. on to take] 
c1325 Spec. Gy Warw. 267Allas! what sholen hij onne take, Þat wolden here her god forsake? 
a1834 Coleridge in Literature (1897) 23 Oct. 11/2The *oncarryingness of his diction. [ Scott's] 
1609 Daniel Civ. Wars viii. xvi,Gather'd by th' *on-marching Enemy. 
1863 Not an Angel I. 184 To hold by his arm for some security against the onmarching multitude. 
1854 J. S. C. Abbott Napoleon (1855) I. xx. 325The *on-rolling billow of Austrian victory. 
1599 Daniel Musophilus 713To pull back th' *on-running state of things. 
1884 Chicago Advance 31 Jan., The fury of the *onsurging barbarians. 
1896 Ibid. 16 Apr. 553/1The *onsweeping purposes..of God. 
1898 T. Hardy Wessex Poems 135Changing anew my *onbearer I traversed the downland. 
1658 J. Durham Exp. Revelation ii. vi. (1680) 145This inability is of her own *onbringing. 
1737 E. Erskine Serm. Wks. 1871 II. 452The *oncarrying of the designs of his glory. 
1894 Chicago Advance 11 Oct. 58/1 As viewed in the retrospect of two years absence..its ordinary *on-go is indeed extraordinary. 
1600 Gowrie's Consp. in Select fr. Harl. Misc. (1793) 190Maister Alexander Ruthven..haisted him fast downe to ouertake his maiestie before his *onleaping. 
a1670 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (1792) I. 91 (Jam. )On his onlouping the earl of Argyle..and Lord Lindsay..had some private speeches with him. 
1900 Westm. Gaz. 12 June 2/1It is a memorable sight to witness the *on-moving of a great army. 
1898 Congregationalist 28 Apr., The arts of diplomacy are too soon exhausted when seventy million people are the on-lookers and *on-pushers. 
1599 Jas. I. βασιλ. Δωρον (1682) 82To speake of rayment, the *on-putting whereof is the ordinary action that followeth next to sleepe. 
1883 Gd. Words 462The steady *onroll of the mighty waves of time. 
1960 J. Fingleton Four Chukkas toAustral. 16His presence allowed the English bowlers to recover from O'Neill's *onsurge. 
1963 Economist 1 June 872/2 The real onsurge into the consumer durables revolution. 
1866 Dublin Rev. Jan. 170The rights of property alone..formed the basis of resistance to the *onsweep of revolution. 
1893 Chicago Advance 26 Jan., All this prodigious swing and on-sweep of development. 
1885 Homilet. Rev. 134In the tremendous *onsweepings of society. 
1972 Guardian 11 July 14/5 Parents shared what they thought about the programmes..by responding to on-air appeals to complete a questionaire. 
1976 Listener 25 Mar. 362/1 The on-air behaviour of certain national and local disc-jockeys. 
1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 248Dead side (of microphone), the angle within which the response of a microphone is low compared with the on-axis response. 
1971 R. J. Collier et al. Optical Holography ii. 54On-axis observation of either image is disturbed by the out-of-focus light from the other. 
1964 A. Wykes Gambling viii. 195These offices are in fact merely extensions of the on-course totalizators. 
1973 Times 12 Apr. 12/4 The Tote, which does most of the on-course betting, earned a meagre profit of {pstlg}100,000 last year. 
1962 Times 9 Apr. (British Oxygen Co. Suppl. ) p. v,Ready supply and on-demand delivery make sure your production goes smoothly. 
1971 Flying ( N.Y. ) Apr. S5/3Probably the most revolutionary innovation within this new system will be an on-demand capability. 
1970 K. Platt Pushbutton Butterfly (1971) xiv. 155The on-duty cop outside the room. 
1974 ‘S. Woods’ Done to Death 184His voice had..that wooden, on duty tone. 
1969 Times 20 Jan. 2/1 There must be more integration with on-farm testing to select the bulls for central testing. 
1970 Daily Tel. 26 Oct. 8/3The economics of on-farm compounding with a mobile mill and mixer look fairly good. 
1965 Universe 11 June 14/5 Mick Norman..last week..hit a convincing 70 against an on-form Sussex side. 
1968 Melody Maker 23 Nov. 22/5 An on-form Phil Seamen is still one of the most exciting things to catch in a London jazz club or pub. 
1959 Manch. Guardian 26 May 8There might be strict prohibition of ‘on-street parking’ but ‘not necessarily’ of loading and unloading. 
1973 D. Westheimer Going Public iv. 64A busy thoroughfare with no on-street parking. 
1964 On-track . [ see off-tracks.v. off- 4 b] 
1976 Aviation Week 20 Sept. 65/2 Funded industry study to determine how best to use new ‘computer-on-a-chip’ microcircuit technology to achieve on-chip fault-detection circuitry..is planned by Air Force Avionics Laboratory. 
1983 Sci. Amer. Apr. 46/1The smallest accelerometer fabricated up to now is an oxide-cantilever device with an on-chip amplifier. 
1988 Computer Weekly 1 Dec. 26/5 Browne observes that the huge transistor count could be used to add all kinds of on-chip functionality, like several Mbytes of on-chip memory, local area network interfaces and maybe more than one cpu. 
ORIGIN: Unstressed form of Old English  an , on  preposition a  preposition on  preposition on  adjective .
on-a-, an- 
Prefix
- Prefix meaning on, at, toward, upon. - oncome, onset, onfall, onlay
 
Etymology
From Middle English on-, from Old English on-, an-, from Proto-Germanic *an-, *ana- (“on-”), from Proto-Indo-European *ano-, *nō- (“on”). Cognate with Dutch aan-, German an-, Swedish an-.
Derived terms
 English words prefixed with on-