English

Article

tho

1. (obsolete) The (plural form); those.
   • Reginald Pecock (c.1450)

     Three trowings or opinions be causes and grounds of many and of well nigh all the errors which many of the lay party hold, and by which holding they unjustly and overmuch wite and blame the clergy and all heir (their) other neighbors of the lay side, which not hold tho same errors accordingly with hem (them), and therefore it is much need for to first give business to unroot and overturn tho three trowings, holdings, or opinions, before the improving of other; sithen if tho three be sufficiently improved, that is to say, if it be sufficiently proved that tho three be nought and untrue and bad, all the other untrue opinions and holdings built upon hem or upon any of hem must needs thereby take heir fall, and lack it whereby they might in any color or seeming be maintained, held, and supported.

   • Alexander Scott (c.1580)

     Tho stalwart knights.

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, Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calenderː Januaryeː

     Tho to a hill his faynting flocke he ledde.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.2:

     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

American English; Alteration of though.

Adverb

tho ‎(not comparable)

1. (informal, chiefly US) Alternative spelling of though

   • 2009, John Hough, Seen the Glory: A Novel of the Battle of Gettysburg, Simon and Schuster, ISBN 9781416589655, 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

• hot, HOT

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

     (please add an English translation of this usage example)

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.

Old Saxon

Adverb

thô

1. then

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /θoː/

Adverb

tho ‎(comparative mair tho, superlative maist tho)

1. though, however

Welsh

Noun

tho

1. Aspirate mutation of to.