tho

See also: Appendix:Variations of "tho"

English

Pronunciation

• (when stressed)
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /ðəʊ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • (US) IPA^(key): /ðoʊ/
  • Rhymes: -əʊ
• (when unstressed)
  • (West Country) IPA^(key): /ðə/
  • Homophone: the

Etymology 1

From Middle English tho, tha, from Old English þā (“the, those”, plural), from Proto-West Germanic *þai, from Proto-Germanic *þai (“those”), from Proto-Indo-European *to-, *só (“that”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian do (“the”, plural). Doublet of they.

Article

tho

1. (obsolete, West Country) The (plural form); those.

Pronoun

tho

1. (obsolete) Those; they.

Etymology 2

From Middle English tho, tha, from Old English þā (“then, when”), from Proto-Germanic *þa- (“that”), from Proto-Indo-European *to-, *só (“that”). See also German da (“then, thereupon”).

Adverb

tho (not comparable)

1. (now dialectal) Then; thereupon.
   • 1481, William Caxton, The History Reynard the Foxː

     Tho went I near and found Master Reynard, that had left that he first read and sang, and began to play his old play.

   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Ianuarye. Ægloga Prima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC; reprinted as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, The Shepheardes Calender […], London: John C. Nimmo, […], 1890, →OCLC:

     Tho to a hill his faynting flocke he ledde.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Tho, her avizing of the vertues rare / Which thereof spoken were, she gan againe / Her to bethink of that mote to her selfe pertaine.

   • 1642, Henry More, Song Soulː

     Tho I gan closely on his person look.

Conjunction

tho

1. (dialectal) When.

Etymology 3

Simplified reform spelling. Popular in American English in the earlier 20th century. Like thru, it failed to establish itself fully, but remains in informal contexts or were brevity is needed. Compare tho'.

Adverb

tho (not comparable)

1. (chiefly US, Philippines, dated or informal, also Internet slang) Alternative spelling of though
   • 2009, John Hough, Seen the Glory: A Novel of the Battle of Gettysburg‎^[1], Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 121:

     I wonder now when I will find time to read it but it is a treasure anyway tho heavy in my knapsack, […]

Anagrams

• -oth, HOT, OTH, hot, o'th', oth

Crimean Gothic

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *sa, *sō, *þat.

Article

tho

1. the
   • 1562, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq:

     omnibus vero dictionibus praeponebat articulum tho aut the

     but to all utterances one prefixes the article tho or the

Usage notes

While it is likely that Crimean Gothic retained grammatical gender, de Busbecq's letter does not mention which articles are used with which words, making it impossible to reconstruct their gender.

Middle English

Article

tho

1. the
   • c. 1449-1455, Reginald Pecock, Represser of over-much weeting of the Clergie

     sithen if tho thre be sufficiently improued , that is to seie , if it be sufficientli proued that tho thre ben noust and vntrewe and badde

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Old Saxon

Adverb

thô

1. then

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /θoː/

Adverb

tho (not comparable)

1. though, however

Welsh

Noun

tho

1. Aspirate mutation of to.

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
to	do	nho	tho
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.