Origin and history of lone

"unaccompanied, solitary; without companions," c. 1300, a contraction of all ane, from Old English all ana "unaccompanied, all by oneself," literally "wholly oneself," from all "all, wholly" (see all) + an "one" (see one). It preserves the old pronunciation of one.

Similar compounds are found in German (allein) and Dutch (alleen). The sense of "and nothing else" is from c. 1200, as in "Man does not live by bread alone" (Matthew iv.4, KJV; there Tyndale has "man shall not lyve by brede onlye"). Related: Aloneness. Adverbial alonely seems to have become obsolete 17c.

Alone, alone, all, all alone,

Alone on a wide wide sea!

[Coleridge]

Middle English, from Old English andlang "entire, continuous; extended" (adj.); also "alongside of" (prep.); from and- "opposite, against" (from Proto-Germanic *andi-, *anda-, from PIE *anti "against," locative singular of root *ant- "front, forehead") + lang "long" (see long (adj.)).

Reinforced by its Old Norse cognate endlang. The prepositional sense was extended in Old English to "through the whole length of." Of position, "lengthwise," from c. 1200; of movement, "onward," from c. 1300. The meaning "in company, together" is from 1580s. All along "throughout" is attested from 1690s.