þei

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See also: yei, thei, and Yei

Gothic

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Romanization

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þei

  1. Romanization of 𐌸𐌴𐌹

Middle English

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Etymology 1

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    Borrowed from Old Norse þeir.

    Alternative forms

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    Pronunciation

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    Pronoun

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    þei (accusative þem, genitive þeires, þeiren, possessive determiner þeir)

    1. Third-person plural pronoun: they[3]
      • c. 1335-1361, William of Palerne (MS. King's College 13), folio 25, recto, lines 1414-1415; republished as W. W. Skeat, editor, The Romance of William of Palerne[1], London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1867, →OCLC, page 52:
        but algate alyſaundꝛine · atte wille hem ſerued / þat non knew here · cunseile but þei þre one
        But Alexandrine would always help them whenever they wanted, so nobody would know their secret except for the three of them.
    2. (rare) Third-person singular pronoun: they
      • c. 1335-1361, William of Palerne (MS. King's College 13), folio 36, recto, lines 2177-2179; republished as W. W. Skeat, editor, The Romance of William of Palerne[2], London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1867, →OCLC, page 74:
        þan haſtely hiȝed eche wiȝt · on hoꝛſe ⁊ on fote / huntyng wiȝt houndes · alle heie wodes / til þei neyȝyed ſo neiȝh · to nymphe þe ſoþe
        Then each man went quickly, hunting with hounds amongst tall trees, on horse and on foot, until he came close enough to notice the truth.
    3. (demonstrative) those
    Descendants
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    • English: they
    • Scots: thay
    • Yola: thaaye, thaay, thaye, thye, a
    See also
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    References
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    1. ^ Brink, Daniel (1992) “Variation between <þ-> and <t-> in the Ormulum”, in Irmengard Rauch, Gerald F. Carr and Robert L. Kyes, editors, On Germanic Linguistics: Issues and Methods (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs; 68), De Gruyter Mouton, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 21-35.
    2. ^ Thurber, Beverly A. (2011 February 15) “Voicing of Initial Interdental Fricatives in Early Middle English Function Words”, in Journal of Germanic Linguistics, volume 23, number 1, Cambridge University Press, →DOI, pages 65-81.
    3. ^ thei, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

    Etymology 2

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    Determiner

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    þei

    1. Alternative form of þi (thy)

    Etymology 3

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    Pronoun

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    þei

    1. (Northern) Alternative form of þe (thee)

    Etymology 4

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    Noun

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    þei (plural þeies)

    1. Alternative form of þigh (thigh)

    Etymology 5

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    Adverb

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    þei

    1. (Early Middle English) Alternative form of þouȝ (though)

    Conjunction

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    þei

    1. (Early Middle English) Alternative form of þouȝ (though)

    Etymology 6

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    Numeral

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    þei

    1. Alternative form of tweyn (two)