To save this word, you’ll need to log in. The history of the pronoun you provides a good example of you are my rock meaning effect social forces can have on the language. Originally, the pair ye and you was used along with thee and thou to refer to people in the second person, ye and you for plural and thee and thou for singular.

I see you sitting there together. I gave you six apples, three for each. These uses are known respectively as the accusative and dative cases. For thee there are three apples. When the second person plural was used as a grammatical subject, ye was used. This use is called the nominative case. As far back as the 14th century, the plural forms ye and you began to be used to address one person—usually a superior—as a mark of deference and respect.