þem

See also: them

Middle English

Alternative forms

them, þeim, þeime, þeym, þeyme, þeme, þaim, þaime, þaym, þayme, þam, þame, þeȝȝm
þaem, yem, yam, yame, yham (Northern)
yem, yam, yame, yham (northeast Midland)
taim, taym, tam (Northern, after t or d)

Etymology 1

From Old Norse þeim. Compare hem (“them”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /θɛi̯m/, /ðɛi̯m/, (originally unstressed) /ðɛm/^[1]^[2]

Pronoun

þem (nominative þei)

Third-person plural accusative pronoun: them^[3]
- 1430–1440, “II. Playsterers. The Creation, to the Fifth Day.”, in Lucy Toulmin Smith, editor, York Plays: The Plays Performed by the Crafts or Mysteries of York on the Day of Corpus Christi in the 14th, 15th, and 16th Centuries: […] (overall work in Middle English), Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, published 1885, →OCLC, page 9, lines 17–20:
  Þe water I will set / to flowe bothe fare and nere, / And þhan þe firmament, / in mydis to set þame sere.
  The water I will set / to flow both far and near, / And then the firmament, / in their midst to set them sere [separately].
(reflexive) themselves

Descendants

English: them, thame
Scots: thaim, them

Middle English personal pronouns
			nominative	accusative	dative	genitive	possessive
singular	1st person		I, ich, ik	me		min mi¹	min
	2nd person		þou	þe		þin þi¹	þin
	3rd person	m	he	him hine²	him	his	his hisen
		f	sche, heo	hire heo	hire		hire hires, hiren
		n	hit		hit him²	his, hit	—
dual³	1st person		wit	unk		unker
dual³	2nd person		ȝit	inc		inker
plural	1st person		we	us, ous		oure	oure oures, ouren
	2nd person⁴		ye	yow		your	your youres, youren
	3rd person	inh.	he	hem he²	hem	here	here heres, heren
	3rd person	bor.	þei	þem, þeim		þeir	þeir þeires, þeiren

¹ Used preconsonantally or before h.
² Early or dialectal.
³ Dual pronouns are only sporadically found in Early Middle English; after that, they are replaced by plural forms. There are no third person dual forms in Middle English.
⁴ Sometimes used as a formal 2nd person singular.

References

^ Brink, Daniel (1992) “Variation between <þ-> and <t-> in the Ormulum”, in Irmengard Rauch, Gerald F. Carr and Robert L. Kyes, editors, On Germanic Linguistics: Issues and Methods (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs; 68), De Gruyter Mouton, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 21-35.
^ Thurber, Beverly A. (2011 February 15) “Voicing of Initial Interdental Fricatives in Early Middle English Function Words”, in Journal of Germanic Linguistics, volume 23, number 1, Cambridge University Press, →DOI, pages 65-81.
^ “theim, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Determiner

þem

(Southwest) Alternative form of þan (“the, that, this”)

Etymology 3

Noun

þem (plural þemes)

Alternative form of teme (“family, tribe”)

Etymology 4

Noun

þem (third-person singular simple present þemeþ, present participle þemende, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle þemed)

Alternative form of temen (“to produce offspring”)

[1] Brink, Daniel (1992) “Variation between <þ-> and <t-> in the Ormulum”, in Irmengard Rauch, Gerald F. Carr and Robert L. Kyes, editors, On Germanic Linguistics: Issues and Methods (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs; 68), De Gruyter Mouton, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 21-35.

[2] Thurber, Beverly A. (2011 February 15) “Voicing of Initial Interdental Fricatives in Early Middle English Function Words”, in Journal of Germanic Linguistics, volume 23, number 1, Cambridge University Press, →DOI, pages 65-81.

[3] “theim, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

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