Etymology

thou

T1H4O1U1

Today it means: To address (a person) using the pronoun thou, especially as an expression of contempt or familiarity. Full definition →

First used chiefly up to early 17th c.Middle English thou ← Old English þū ← Proto-West Germanic *þū
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thou · pronoun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*túh₂“you, thou”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*þū“you (singular), thou”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*þū
  4. Old English · inherited fromþū
  5. Middle English · inherited fromthou
  6. English todaythou

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, 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). 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 · verb2

  1. Middle English · inherited fromthouen
  2. English todaythou

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.

thou · noun3

Clipping of thou(sandth).

thou · noun4

Clipping of thou(sand).

thou · adverb, conjunction5

See though.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*túh₂ all →

thyT-form

First known use, by meaning

  • chiefly up to early 17th c. Nominative singular of ye (“you”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.