thay

See also: thảy, thây, thấy, thầy, and thẩy

English

Etymology 1

Article

thay

Pronunciation spelling of the.
- 1861, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford‎^[1]:
  "The chaps as catches the big fishes, sir," went on the keeper, getting confidential, "is thay cussed night-line poachers."

Etymology 2

Verb

thay

Pronunciation spelling of say, to indicate a speaker with a speech impediment such as a lisp.
- 1868, Sophie May, Dotty Dimple at Her Grandmother's‎^[2]:
  "Good girlth don't thay tho," said sweet little Charlie rather shocked.
- 1903, Burt L. Standish, Frank Merriwell's Bravery‎^[3]:
  Do you mean to thay I am no gentleman, thir?

Etymology 3

Pronoun

thay

Obsolete spelling of they.
- 1506, Alexander Barclay, The Ship of Fools, Volume 1‎^[4]:
  Yet fynde I another sort almoste as bad as thay.
- 1566, John Knox, The Works of John Knox, Vol. 1 (of 6)‎^[5]:
  But potent is he against whome thei faught; for when thay wicked war in greatast securitie, then begane God to schaw his anger.
- 1838, William Makepeace Thackeray, Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush‎^[6]:
  Law bless us! there was four of us on this stairkes, four as nice young men as you ever see: Mr. Bruffy's young man, Mr. Dawkinses, Mr. Blewitt's, and me--and we knew what our masters was about as well as thay did theirselfs.

Anagrams

Athy

Atayal

Noun

thay

leftover

References

“thay”, in 原住民族語言線上辭典 [Online Dictionary of Indigenous Languages]‎^[7] (in Mandarin), Taipei: 財團法人原住民族語言研究發展基金會 [Indigenous Languages Research and Development Foundation], 2014–2026
Paul Jen-kuei Li (李壬癸) (1996), 宜蘭縣南島民族與語言 [The Formosan Tribes and Languages in Yilan] (in Chinese), Yilan: Yilan County Government, →ISBN, page 207

Middle English

Pronoun

thay

alternative form of þei (“they”)

Scots

Etymology

Etymology tree

Middle English þai

Scots thay

From Middle English þai, borrowed in the 1200s from Old Norse þair,^[1] plural of the demonstrative sá which acted as a plural pronoun. Displaced native Middle English he from Old English hīe — which vowel changes had left indistinct from he (“he”) — by the 1400s,^[1]^[2]^[3] being readily incorporated alongside native words beginning with the same sound (the, that, this). ^[4]

The Norse term (whence also Icelandic þeir (“they”), Faroese teir (“they”), Danish de (“they”), Swedish de (“they”), Norwegian Nynorsk dei (“they”)) is from Proto-Germanic *þai (“those”) (from Proto-Indo-European *to- (“that”)), whence also Old English þā (“those”) and English they.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ðeː, ðə, eː, deː/

Pronoun

thay

they (third-person pronoun, nominative case, usually plural, sometimes singular)

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 “thay”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
^ Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “thay”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
^ Otto Jespersen, Growth and Structure of the English Language
^ Some widespread features of Scots grammar. https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=147479&section=4#:~:text=The%20most%20widespread%20subject%20forms,or%20they%20in%20the%20plural.

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [tʰaj˧˧]
(Huế) IPA^(key): [tʰaj˧˧]
(Saigon) IPA^(key): [tʰa(ː)j˧˧]

Etymology 1

Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 替 (SV: thế).

Verb

thay • (台, 𫢼, 𠳙)

to change; to replace
to act in place of, to act on behalf of, to act for
thay trời hành đạo ― to enforce the Way on behalf of Heaven

Derived terms

Etymology 2

This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.
Particularly: “Same etymology as etymology 1? Example from Phật thuyết: 盎那苦辱世 áng nạ khó nhọc thay "parents suffer in the place of their children", translating 子苦願代受 in the 父母恩重難報經. Or

Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 哉 (SV: tai), e.g. Vietnamese translation "lành thay" for 「善哉」 (SV: thiện tai)?”

Adverb

thay • (卋, 世, 台, 咍, 𫢼, 𱔖)

Used as a modifier to indicate surprise.
- Diamond Sutra, Vietnamese translation by Thích Thanh Từ, English translation based on Burton Watson (2010) & A. Charles Muller (2013)
  Đức Phật bảo: "Lành thay, lành thay! Này Tu-bồ-đề, như lời ông nói, Như Lai khéo hộ niệm các vị Bồ-tát, khéo phó chúc các vị Bồ -tát, nay ông hãy lắng nghe cho kỹ, ta sẽ vì ông mà nói. Người thiện nam, thiện nữ phát tâm Vô thượng Chánh đẳng Chánh giác nên như thế mà trụ, như thế mà hàng phục tâm kia."
  The Buddha said, “How good! How good! Subhūti, it is as you have said. The Tathāgata is well mindful of all the bodhisattvas, and is skillful at instructing the bodhisattvas. Now you listen well, and [he] will explain it for you. If good sons and good daughters would like to arouse the mind of peerless perfect enlightenment, they should abide like this and subdue their thoughts like this.”
- 2016, Trầm Hương, Trong cơn lốc xoáy, part I, NXB Phụ nữ, page 24:
  Kỳ lạ thay, sự lạnh lẽo của Luisa với đàn ông lại là nguồn năng lượng dồi dào làm tiệm nhuộm của cô khởi sắc.
  How strange: Luisa's aloofness towards men was an abundant source of energy making her dyeing shop thrive.
Synonym: ơi

Yola

Article

thay

alternative form of a (“the”)
- 1927, “YOLA ZONG O BARONY VORTH”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 132, line 5:
  "Faad thay goul ez upa thee, thou stouk" co Billeen,
  "What the divil is on you, you fool?" quoth Billy;

References

Kathleen A. Browne (1927), “THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD.”, in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of lreland (Sixth Series)‎^[8], volume 17, number 2, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, page 132

[AHD-1] 1.0 ^1.1 “thay”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

[2] Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “thay”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

[3] Otto Jespersen, Growth and Structure of the English Language

[4] Some widespread features of Scots grammar. https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=147479&section=4#:~:text=The%20most%20widespread%20subject%20forms,or%20they%20in%20the%20plural.

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