English

Alternative forms

• -th

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /-əθ/

• There is some evidence that verbs written with this ending in Early Modern English were pronounced as if they ended in -s, which was common in speech before becoming common in writing. Alternatively (or in addition to the former) the Northumbrian dialect of Old English's third-person singular present indicative suffix, -s, may have eventually displaced the -eth suffix.

Suffix

-eth

1. (archaic) Used to form the third-person singular present indicative of verbs.

   goeth, playeth

2. (humorous) replaces -s or -es (of verb forms and noun plurals), or is appended to other verb forms, forming nonce, pseudoarchaic versions of the word

   I emaileth, he emaileth; thou saideth; he killedeth; respondeth my messageth.‎

Coordinate terms

• -est, -st

Etymology 2

From Middle English -th, -eth, -the, -ethe, from Old English -þa, -þe, -oþa, from Proto-Germanic *-þô, *-tô, *-udô, *-dô, from Proto-Indo-European *-tós.

Suffix

-eth

1. used to create ordinal numbers from cardinal numbers ending in -y, namely the multiples of ten (other than ten itself): 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90; e.g. twentieth, thirtieth.