Definify.com
Definition 2024
address_with_the_informal_T-form
thou
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: thou, IPA(key): /ðaʊ/
- Rhymes: -aʊ
Alternative forms
Pronoun
thou (plural ye, objective case thee, reflexive thyself, possessive determiner thy or thine, possessive pronoun thine)
- (archaic, literary, religious, ceremonial, or dialectal) you singular nominative case
- 1742, Charles Wesley (music), “Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown”:
- Come, O thou Traveller unknown, / Whom still I hold, but cannot see! / My company before is gone, / And I am left alone with Thee; / With Thee all night I mean to stay, / And wrestle till the break of day.
- 1743, unknown, [18th-century sermon on Ephesians 5:14 in the Bible], page 3:
- EPHES. V. 14. Awake thou that ſleepeth, and ariſe from the Dead, and Chriſt shall give thee Light.
- 2014 October 30, Ben Brantley, “When the head leads the heart: 'The Real Thing,' With Ewan McGregor and Maggie Gyllenhaal, opens on Broadway [print version: When the witty head is far ahead of the heart: Maggie Gyllenhaal and Ewan McGregor star in revival of 'Real Thing', International New York Times, 4 November 2014, p. 9]”, in The New York Times:
- [I]ts main character, Henry (Mr. [Ewan] McGregor), is a successful, intellectual dramatist who seems quite capable of churning out fizzy, challenging works about brilliant but ambivalent revolutionaries, philosophers, etc. […] But this cleverer-than-thou creature gets his comeuppance in "The Real Thing," showing that a very human heart – just like those possessed by the less sesquipedalian – beats beneath his fancy words.
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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), wilt (of will), and dost (of do).
- Many old uses of thou and ye followed the T-V distinction, thou being the informal pronoun.
Derived terms
Translations
singular informal form of "you"
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See also
English personal pronouns
Number | Person | Type | Subject | Objective | Reflexive | Possessive adjective | Possessive pronoun |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | First | — | I | me | myself | my, mine (archaic) |
mine |
Second | — | you | you | yourself | your | yours, yourn (obsolete outside dialects) |
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Archaic | thou | thee | thyself, theeself |
thy, thine |
thine | ||
Third | Masculine | he | him | himself, hisself (archaic) |
his | his, hisn (obsolete outside dialects) |
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Feminine | she | her | herself | her | hers, hern (obsolete outside dialects) |
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Neuter | it | itself | its | its | |||
Indefinite | one | oneself | one's | — | |||
Plural | First | — | we | us | ourselves | our | ours, ourn (obsolete outside dialects) |
Second | — | you, ye (archaic) |
you | yourselves | your | yours, yourn (obsolete outside dialects) |
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Third | — | they | them | themselves | their | theirs, theirn (obsolete outside dialects) |
Verb
thou (third-person singular simple present thous, present participle thouing, simple past and past participle thoued)
- (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)
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘On the City Wall’, In Black and White, Folio Society 2005, p. 443:
- (intransitive) To use the word thou.
Antonyms
Translations
to address someone using the informal second-person singular pronoun
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Etymology 2
Shortened from thousandth.
Pronunciation
- enPR: thou, IPA(key): /θaʊ/
- Rhymes: -aʊ
Noun
thou (plural thous)
- (dated, Britain) 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)
- (slang) A thousand, especially a thousand dollars, a thousand pounds sterling, etc.
Statistics
Etymology 4
Mis-spelling of though
Adverb
thou (not comparable)
- Misspelling of though.
Conjunction
thou
- Misspelling of though.