thew

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /θjuː/, /θuː/
• Rhymes: -uː

Etymology 1

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English thew, theow, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English þēow, þēo (“servant, slave; servile, not free, bond”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Germanic *þewaz, *þegwaz (“servant; subject, servile”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *tekwos (“runner”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *tekʷ- (“to run, flow”). Cognate with Old High German diu (“servant”) and dio (“unfree”), Gothic 𐌸𐌹𐌿𐍃 (þius, “bondman, slave, servant”), Dutch dienen (“to serve”), German dienen (“to serve”), Old English þegn (“servant, minister, vassal”).

Noun

thew (plural thews)

1. (obsolete) A bondman; a slave.

Adjective

thew (comparative more thew, superlative most thew)

1. (obsolete) Bond; servile.

Etymology 2

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English thewen, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English þēowan, þȳwan (“to press, impress, force, press on, urge on, drive, press with a weapon, thrust, pierce, stab, threaten, rebuke, subjugate, crush, push, oppress, check”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Germanic *þewjaną (“to enslave, oppress”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *tekʷ- (“to run, flow”). Cognate with Middle Dutch douwen, Middle Low German duwen, Middle High German diuhen, dūhen, diuwen (“to oppress”).

Verb

thew (third-person singular simple present thews, present participle thewing, simple past and past participle thewed)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To oppress; enslave.

Etymology 3

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English thew, theaw (often in plural thewes), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English þēaw (“usage, custom, general practise of a community, mode of conduct, manner, practise, way, behaviour”). Cognate with Old Frisian thāw, Old Saxon thau (“custom”). possibly reflected in an (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old High German *dou (“discipline, coercion, tuition”); West Germanic *þawwaz (“custom, habit”), of unknown etymology, by EWAhd tentatively identified as a reflex of an s-less variant of (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European .

Noun

thew (plural thews)

1. Muscle or sinew.
   • 1927, P. G. Wodehouse, 'The Small Bachelor', Arrow, 2008, page 247

     As a rule, the Purple Chicken catered for the intelligentsia of the neighbourhood, and these did not run to thews and sinews. On most nights in the week you would find the tables occupied by wispy poets and slender futurist painters...

   • 1960, Thomas Pynchon, Low-Lands

     Fortune’s elf child and disinherited darling, young and randy and more a Jolly Jack Tar than anyone human could conceivably be; thews and chin taut against a sixty-knot gale with a well-broken-in briar clenched in the bright defiant teeth

2. A good quality or habit; virtue.
   • c. 1379, Geoffrey Chaucer, The House of Fame, 1829-34, [1]

     To tellen al the tale aright, / We ben shrewes, every wight, / And han delyt in wikkednes, / As gode folk han in goodnes; And Ioye to be knowen shrewes, / And fulle of vyce and wikked thewes;

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, in Dorothy Stephens (ed.), The Faerie Queene, Books Three and Four, Indianapolis: Hackett, 2006, Book IV, Canto 9, Stanza 14, p. 391,

     He with good thewes and speaches well applyde, / Did mollifie, and calme her raging heat.

3. (usually in the plural) An attractive physical attribute, especially muscle; mental or moral vigour.
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene 3, 495-8 [2]

     For nature crescent does not grow alone / In thews and bulk; but as this temple waxes, / The inward service of the mind and soul / Grows wide withal.

   • 1855, Walt Whitman, "Song of the Open Road" in Leaves of Grass, New York: Modern Library, 1921, Stanza 10, p. 130, [3]

     He travelling with me needs the best blood, thews, endurance, / None may come to the trial till he or she bring courage and health,

   • 1896, A. E. Housman, "Reveille" in A Shropshire Lad, [4]

     Up, lad: thews that lie and cumber / Sunlit pallets never thrive; / Morns abed and daylight slumber / Were not meant for man alive.

   • 1998: B.A. Roberts, Battle Magic – As I pull two Mercian shafts from my bloodied thews.

Derived terms

• thewless
• thewness
• thews
• thewsome
• thewy

 

Verb

thew (third-person singular simple present thews, present participle thewing, simple past and past participle thewed)

1. Instruct in morals or values; chastise.

Derived terms

• thewed

Anagrams

• whet

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Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /θeːu̯/
• IPA^(key): /θɛu̯/

Adjective

thew

1. Aspirate mutation of tew.

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
tew	dew	nhew	thew
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.