thou - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English thou, tho, thogh, thoue, thouȝ, thow, thowe, tou, towe, thu, thue, thugh, tu, you (Northern England), ðhu, þeou, þeu, þou (the latter three early Southwest England), from Old English þū,[1] from Proto-West Germanic *þū, from Proto-Germanic *þū (“you (singular), thou”), from Proto-Indo-European *túh₂ (“you, thou”).

cognates and usage evolution

The English word is cognate with Saterland Frisian du (“thou”), West Frisian do (“thou”), dialectal Dutch du, dou, douw (“thou”), Limburgish doe (“thou”), Low German du (“thou”), dialectal German dau (“thou”), German du (“thou”), Danish du (“thou”), Swedish du (“thou”), Norwegian Nynorsk du (“thou”), Faroese tú (“thou”), Icelandic þú (“thou”), Gothic 𐌸𐌿 (þu, “thou”), Latin tu, Ancient Greek σύ (sú) (Doric Ancient Greek τύ (tú), Greek εσύ (esý)), Irish tú, Lithuanian tu, Old Church Slavonic тꙑ (ty), Welsh ti, Armenian դու (du), Albanian ti, Persian تو (to), Gujarati તું (tũ), Hindi तू (tū).[2]

The informality of thou and its replacement by ye in formal situations date only to the 14th century and come from French influence, since French (as many European languages, but not Old English) uses the second-person plural (vous) instead of the second-person singular (tu) as a mark of politeness or respect.

thou (plural ye, objective case thee, reflexive thyself, possessive determiner thy or thine, possessive pronoun thine)

  1. (archaic, dialectal, literary, religion) Nominative singular of ye (“you”). [chiefly up to early 17th c.]
    • 1742 April 4, Charles Wesley, A Sermon Preached on Sunday, April 4, 1742. Before the University of Oxford, London: Printed by J. Paramore, […], published 1783, →OCLC, page 10:
      Art thou in earnest about thy soul? and canst thou tell the Searcher of Hearts, Thou, O God, art the thing that I long for? Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I would love thee?
    • 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Four. The Last of the Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 137:
      Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy dominion!
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:thou.

singular nominative form of you

From Late Middle English thouen, theu, thew, thou, thowe, thowen, thui, thuy (“to address (a person) with thou, particularly in a contemptuous or polite manner”), from the pronoun thou: see etymology 1 above.[3]

thou (third-person singular simple present thous, present participle thouing, simple past and past participle thoued)

  1. (transitive) To address (a person) using the pronoun thou, especially as an expression of contempt or familiarity.
    Synonym: thee
    Antonym: you
    Don’t thou them as thous thee! – a Yorkshire English admonition to overly familiar children
    • c. 1530, “Hickscorner”, in W[illiam] Carew Hazlitt, editor, A Select Collection of Old English Plays. Originally Published by Robert Dodsley in the Year 1744. […], 4th edition, volume I, London: Reeves and Turner, […], published 1874, page 180:
      Avaunt, caitiff, dost thou thou me! / I am come of good kin, I tell thee! / My mother was a lady of the stews' blood born, / And (knight of the halter) my father ware an horn; / Therefore I take it in full great scorn, / That thou shouldest thus check me.
    • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 266:
      [T]aunt him with the licenſe of Inke: if thou thou'ſt him some thrice, it ſhall not be amiſſe, and as many Lyes, as will lye in thy ſheete of paper, although the ſheete were bigge enough for the bedde of Ware in England, ſet 'em downe, go about it.
    • 1603 November 27, “The Tryal of Sir Walter Raleigh Kt. at Winton, on Thursday the 17th of November, Anno. Dom. 1603. in the First Year of King James the First”, in [Thomas Salmon], editor, A Compleat Collection of State-Tryals, and Proceedings upon Impeachment for High Treason, and Other Crimes and Misdemeanours; […] In Four Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for Timothy Goodwin, […]; John Walthoe […]; Benj[amin] Tooke […]; John Darby […]; Jacob Tonson […]; and John Walthoe Jun. […], published 1719, →OCLC, page 177, column 2:
    • 1677, William Gibson, “An Answer to _John Cheyney_’s Pamphlet Entituled _The Shibboleth of Quakerism_”, in The Life of God, which is the Light and Salvation of Men, Exalted: […], [London]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 134:
      What! doſt thou not believe that God's Thouing and Theeing was and is ſound Speech? [...] And Theeing & Thouing of one ſingle Perſon was the language of Chriſt Jeſus, and the Holy Prophets and Apoſtles both under the Diſpenſations of Law and Goſpel, [...]
    • 1755, [Voltaire [pseudonym; François-Marie Arouet]], “Ferdinand III. Forty-seventh Emperor.”, in Annals of the Empire from the Reign of Charlemagne […] In Two Volumes, volume II, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, page 257:
      The emperors before Rodolphus I. ſent all their mandates in Latin, thouing every prince, as the grammar of that language allows. This thouing of the counts of the empire was continued in the German language which diſallows ſuch expreſſions.
    • 1811, Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra, “Of Matters Relating and Appertaining to this Adventure, and to this Memorable History”, in Charles Jarvis, transl., The Life and Exploits of Don Quixote de la Mancha. Translated from the Spanish [...] In Four Volumes, volume IV, London: Printed [by Harding & Wright] for Lackington, Allen, and Co. [_et al._], →OCLC, part II, book III, pages 57–58:
      Unfortunate we the duennas! though we descended in a direct male-line from Hector of Troy, our mistresses will never forbear "thouing" us, were they to be made queens for it.
    • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “On the City Wall”, in In Black and White (A. H. Wheeler & Co.’s Indian Railway Library; no. 3), 5th edition, Allahabad: Messrs. A. H. Wheeler & Co.; London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, Ld., […], published 1890, →OCLC, page 91:
      "One service more, Sahib, since thou hast come so opportunely," said Lalun. "Wilt thou"–it is very nice to be thou-ed by Lalun–"take this old man across the City—the troops are everywhere, and they might hurt him for he is old—to the Kumharsen Gate?["]
    • 1917, Russell Osborne Stidston, “Inferiors to Superiors”, in The Use of Ye in the Function of Thou in Middle English Literature from Ms. Auchinleck to Ms. Vernon: A Study of Grammar and Social Intercourse in Fourteenth-century England: […], Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University, →OCLC, section 1 (The Higher Classes to Royalty), page 22:
      In Guy a duke in council thous his emperor [...] In Bevis the earl addresses the emperor of Almaine [...] while the young son of the family, Bevis, thous him not only as his father's murderer [...], but even when he is pretending friendship for him [...].
  2. (intransitive) To use the word thou.
    Synonym: thee
    Antonym: you
    • 2006, Julian Dibbell, chapter 5, in Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot, New York, N.Y.: Basic Books, →ISBN:
      The hardcore role-players will wake up one day feeling, like a dead weight on their chest, the strain of endless texting in Renaissance Faire English—yet dutifully go on theeing and thouing all the same.
    • 2009, David R. Keeston [pseudonym; Alan D. Jenkins], “Seeing God in the Ordinary”, in The Hitch Hikers’ Guide to the Gospel, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 39:
      You want to hear the word of God, and be challenged to go out and change the world. Instead, you are, for the fifth Sunday in a row, mewling on about purple-headed mountains (which is a bit of an imaginative stretch, since you live in East Anglia) and "theeing" and "thouing" all over the place.

to address (a person) using the familiar second-person pronoun

Clipping of thou(sandth).[4]

thou (plural thous)

  1. A unit of length equal to one thousandth of an inch (25.4 µm).
    Synonyms: mil, mill
    We just wanted to take off a few thou, which we easily did with fine sandpaper.
    • 1946 November and December, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 344:
      But to continue, "At Horwich they had gone all scientific, and talked in 'thous.,' though apparently some of their work was to the nearest half-inch. […] ."
    • 1984, Robert D. Adams, William C. Wake, “Surface Preparation”, in Structural Adhesive Joints in Engineering, Barking, Essex: Elsevier Applied Science Publishers, published 1986, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 220–221:
      All these methods remove metal and can, in fact, remove a few thou from the surface. For accurately machined parts, therefore, none of these methods are suitable but wet blasting with a fine alumina which gives a polishing–cleaning action may be operated within the required tolerances.
    • 2000, Mike Bishop, Vern Tardel, “Bells and Whistles”, in How to Build a Traditional Ford Hot Rod, revised edition, Osceola, Wis.: MBI Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 131, column 2:
      Make no mistake, we’re talking about some major repositioning; the rear ends of the cones didn’t move just a few thou’ or even 1/4 or 1/2 inch in one direction. These beauties moved around big time.

Clipping of thou(sand).[4]

thou (plural thous or **thou)

  1. (slang) A thousand, especially a thousand of some currency (dollars, pounds sterling, etc.).
    Synonyms: grand, G; large; K, k
    Whoa there, big spender — that'll cost you a few thou. Are you sure you can afford it?

See though.

thou (not comparable)

  1. Misspelling of though.

thou

  1. Misspelling of though.

  2. ^ “thǒu, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 11 July 2019.

  3. ^ Compare “thou, pron. and n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2012; “thou1, pron.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

  4. ^ “thǒuen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 11 July 2019; “thou, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2012.

  5. ↑ 4.0 4.1 “thou, n.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2012; “thou2, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

thou (objective the, possessive determiner thy, possessive pronoun thyn)

  1. alternative form of þou

From Middle English þou, from Old English þū, from Proto-Germanic *þū, from Proto-Indo-European *túh₂ (“you”).

thou (objective case thee, reflexive thysel, possessive determiner thy)

  1. (archaic outside Orkney and Shetland) thou, you (2nd person singular subject pronoun, informal)

From Middle English þou, from Old English þū, from Proto-West Germanic *þū.

thou

  1. thou
    Synonym: thee
    • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 31:
      Co thou; Co he.
      Quoth thou; Says he.
    • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 52:
      Thou leeesth if thou wasth Saan Vinteen, an Saan Vinteen agyne.
      Thou liest if thou wast St. Finton, and St. Finton again.
    • 1867, “VERSES IN ANSWER TO THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 2, page 100:
      Go gaame abuth Forth, thou unket saalvache.
      Go, make game about Forth, thou uncouth sloven.
    • 1867, “VERSES IN ANSWER TO THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 2, page 100:
      Thou ne'er eighthest buskès, whit palskès, breede-kaake.
      Thou never eatedst spiced bread, white palskes, (or) bride-cake.
    • 1867, “DR. RUSSELL ON THE INHABITANTS AND DIALECT OF THE BARONY OF FORTH”, in APPENDIX, page 131:
      Fad didn'st thou cum t' ouz on zum other dey?
      [Why didn't you come to us on some other day?]