thou

English

Wikipedia

Etymology 1

From Middle English thou, thow, thu, þou, from Old English þū, from Proto-Germanic *þū, from Proto-Indo-European *túh₂. Akin to Old Frisian thū (West Frisian do), Old Saxon thū (Low German du), Old Dutch thū (Middle Dutch du, Limburgish doe), Old High German dū (German du), Old Norse þú, (Icelandic þú, Danish du, Norwegian du, Swedish du), Latin tu, Ancient Greek σύ (sý) (Modern Greek εσύ (esý)).

Pronunciation

• enPR: thou, IPA^(key): /ðaʊ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊ

Alternative forms

• thu, du, thow, tha

Pronoun

Wikipedia

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

1. (archaic, literary, or dialectal) you singular informal, nominative case

Usage notes

• Thou is used with the archaic second-person singular of verbs, which usually ends in -est, as in, for example, “Lovest thou me?” Irregular forms include: art (of be), hast (of have), shalt (of shall), wost (of wit), and wilt (of will).

Derived terms

• th'art
• thou'lt
• thou'rt
• thou'st

Translations

singular informal form of "you"

• Arabic: أنت (ar) m ('ánta), أنت (ar) f ('ánti)

  Egyptian Arabic: انت m (ínta), انت f (ínti)

  Tunisian Arabic: اِنْتِ m, f (ʾinti)

• Armenian: դու (hy) (du)
• Belarusian: ты (be) (ty)
• Bengali: তুই (tui)
• Bulgarian: ти (ti)
• Catalan: tu (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 你 (zh) (nǐ), 祢 (zh) (nǐ) (to God), (archaic) 爾 (zh), 尔 (zh) (ěr), 汝 (zh) (rǔ)

• Czech: ty (cs)
• Danish: du (da)
• Dutch: gij (nl) (archaic or dialectal), jij (nl)
• Esperanto: ci (eo)
• Faroese: tú
• Finnish: sinä (fi)
• French: tu (fr) m, f
• Galician: ti (gl) m, f
• Georgian: შენ (ka) (šen)
• German: du (de), Du (de)
• Gothic: 𐌸𐌿 (þū)
• Hebrew: אתה (he) m (atá), את (he) f (at)
• Hindi: तुम (tum), तू (tū)
• Hungarian: te (hu)
• Icelandic: þú (is)
• Irish: tú
• Italian: tu (it)
• Japanese: 君 (ja) (きみ, kimi), 汝 (ja) (なんじ, nanji), お前 (おまえ, omae), あなた (ja) (anata), 貴方 (ja) (anata), あんた (anta)
• Korean: 당신 (ko) (dangsin) (當身 (ko)), 너 (ko) (neo), 네 (ko) (ne)

• Latin: tu (la)
• Lithuanian: tu (lt)
• Macedonian: ти (mk) (ti)
• Norwegian: du (no)
• Ojibwe: giin
• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: тꙑ (ty)

  Glagolitic: ⱅⱏⰺ (ty)

• Old English: þū
• Old Irish: tú
• Persian: تو (fa) (to)
• Polish: ty (pl)
• Portuguese: tu (pt)
• Romanian: tu (ro)
• Russian: ты (ru) (ty)
• Scots: thoo
• Scottish Gaelic: thu, tu
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ти̑

  Roman: tȋ

• Sinhalese: ඔයා (oyā)
• Slovak: ty (sk)
• Slovene: tí
• Spanish: tú (es) m, f
• Swedish: du (sv)
• Thai: คุณ (th) (kun), เธอ (th) (ter)
• Turkish: sen (tr)
• Ukrainian: ти (uk) (ty)
• Urdu: تم (tum), تو (tū)
• Vietnamese: mày (vi), em (vi)
• Welsh: ti (cy)
• Yiddish: דו m (du)

See also

English personal pronouns

Number	Person	Gender	Subject	Objective	Reflexive	Possessive adjective	Possessive pronoun
Singular	First	—	I	me	myself	my	mine
	Second	—	you, thou (archaic)	you, thee (archaic)	yourself, thyself (archaic) theeself (archaic)	your, thy (archaic)	yours, thine (archaic)
	Third	Masculine	he	him	himself	his
		Feminine	she	her	herself	her	hers
		Neuter	it		itself	its	its (rare)
		Gender-neutral	they	them	themself	their	theirs
Plural	First	—	we	us	ourselves	our	ours
	Second	—	you, ye (archaic)	you	yourselves	your	yours
	Third	—	they	them	themselves	their	theirs
Indefinite	Third	—	one		oneself	one's	—

Verb

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 familiarity or contempt.
   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘On the City Wall’, In Black and White, Folio Society 2005, p. 443:

     "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 [...] to the Kumharsen Gate?"

   I thou thee, thou traitor! (Edward Coke to Walter Raleigh)

   Avaunt, caitiff, dost thou thou me! I am come of good kin, I tell thee! (The morality play Hickscorner, ca. 1530)

   If thou thou'st him some thrice, it shall not be amiss[...] (Twelfth Night 3.2, Sir Toby Belch to Sir Andrew, egging him on to pick a fight with another, where one would expect one knight courteously to say to another, "If you thou him...").

   Don't thou them as thous thee! (Yorkshire English admonition to overly familiar children)

2. (intransitive) To use the word thou.

Translations

to address someone using the pronoun thou

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: tykat (cs)
• Dutch: jij en jou zeggen, tutoyeren (nl)
• Faroese: túa
• Finnish: sinutella (fi)
• French: tutoyer (fr)
• German: duzen (de)
• Greek: μιλάω στὸ ἑνικό (miláo sto enikó, "speak in the singular")
• Hungarian: tegez (hu)

• Icelandic: þúa
• Italian: dar del tu a
• Japanese: 呼び捨て (よびすて, yobisute)
• Polish: mówić na ty (pl), (informal) tykać (pl)
• Portuguese: tratar por tu
• Russian: тыкать (ru) (týkat’), тыкнуть (ru) (týknut’)
• Slovak: tykať
• Slovene: tíkati
• Spanish: tutear (es)
• Turkish: sen (tr)

to use the word thou

• Dutch: tutoyeren (nl)

• Icelandic: þúa

Etymology 2

Shortened from thousandth.

Pronunciation

• enPR: thou, IPA^(key): /θaʊ/
• Rhymes: -aʊ

Noun

thou (plural thous)

1. (dated UK) A unit of length equal to one-thousandth of an inch.

Synonyms

• mil (US)

Etymology 3

Shortened from thousand.

Pronunciation

• enPR: thou, IPA^(key): /θaʊ/
• Rhymes: -aʊ

Noun

thou (plural thou)

1. (slang) A thousand, especially a thousand dollars, a thousand pounds sterling, etc.

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: asked · soon · almost · #217: thou · full · country · course