thee
EnglishEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English þe, from Old English þē (“thee”, originally dative, but later also accusative), from Proto-Germanic *þiz (“thee”), from Proto-Indo-European *te (“second-person singular pronoun”). Cognate with German Low German di (“thee”), German dir (“thee”, dative pron.), Icelandic þér (“thee”). More at thou.
PronunciationEdit
PronounEdit
thee (second-person singular, objective case, nominative thou, reflexive thyself)
- (now chiefly archaic, literary) Objective and reflexive case of thou. [from 8th c.]
- 1598, William Shakespeare, Henry IV part 1, page 1.2.49-50:
- Prince Henry: Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part?
Falstaff: No; I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there.
- 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost:
- Michael, this my behest have thou in charge,
Take to thee from among the Cherubim
Thy choice of flaming Warriours, least the Fiend
- 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.
- (now chiefly archaic, dialect) Thou. [from 12th c.]
- 1773, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin 2001:
- [H]e immediately perceived when I was taken ill, and, after seeing Mama, said to me "I am afraid Thee art not well thyself?"
- 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin:
- "What does thee want, father?" said Rachel.
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
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VerbEdit
thee (third-person singular simple present thees, present participle theeing, simple past and past participle theed)
- (transitive) To address (a person) using the pronoun thee.
- Synonym: thou
- 1677, William Gibson, “An Answer to John Cheyney’s Pamphlet Entituled The Shibboleth of Quakerism”, in The Life of God, which is the Light and Salvation of Men, Exalted: […], [London: s.n.], OCLC 802074687, page 134:
- What! doſt thou not believe that God's Thouing and theeing was and is ſound Speech? [...] And theeing & Thouing of one ſingle Perſon was the language of Chriſt Jeſus, and the Holy Prophets and Apoſtles both under the Diſpenſations of Law and Goſpel, [...]
- (intransitive) To use the word thee.
- Synonym: thou
- 2006, Julian Dibbell, chapter 5, in Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot, New York, N.Y.: Basic Books, →ISBN:
- The hardcore role-players will wake up one day feeling, like a dead weight on their chest, the strain of endless texting in Renaissance Faire English—yet dutifully go on theeing and thouing all the same.
- 2009, David R. Keeston [pseudonym; Alan D. Jenkins], “Seeing God in the Ordinary”, in The Hitch Hikers’ Guide to the Gospel, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 39:
- You want to hear the word of God, and be challenged to go out and change the world. Instead, you are, for the fifth Sunday in a row, mewling on about purple-headed mountains (which is a bit of an imaginative stretch, since you live in East Anglia) and "theeing" and "thouing" all over the place.
See alsoEdit
Etymology 2Edit
From Middle English theen (“to increase, prosper, flourish”), from Old English þēon (“to thrive, prosper, flourish, grow”), from Proto-Germanic *þinhaną (“to thrive, succeed”), from Proto-Indo-European *tenk- (“to succeed, turn out well”). Cognate with Dutch gedijen (“to flourish, thrive, prosper, succeed”), German gedeihen (“to thrive”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌸𐌴𐌹𐌷𐌰𐌽 (gaþeihan, “to increase, thrive”).
PronunciationEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- the (Scotland)
VerbEdit
thee (third-person singular simple present thees, present participle theeing, simple past and past participle theed)
- (intransitive, Britain, obsolete) To thrive; prosper.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book II, canto I, stanza 33:
- Well mote thee, as well can wish your thought.
Derived termsEdit
Etymology 3Edit
From Pitman zee, which it is related to phonetically and graphically, and the sound it represents.
NounEdit
thee (plural thees)
- The letter ⟨(⟩, which stands for the th sound /ð/ in Pitman shorthand.
Related termsEdit
AnagramsEdit
AcehneseEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Proto-Chamic *thɔw, from Proto-Malayo-Chamic, from Proto-Malayo-Sumbawan, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *taqu, from Proto-Austronesian *Caqu.
VerbEdit
thee
- to be informed
DutchEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowing from Malay teh, from Min Nan 茶 (tê). The "-h-" is a faux-Greek spelling (compare Greek τσάι (tsái)).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
thee m (plural theeën, diminutive theetje n)
Derived termsEdit
- kamillethee
- kruidenthee
- muntthee
- rooibosthee
- theedoos
- theeglas
- theekop
- theekrans
- theelepel
- theeleut
- theemuts
- theepauze
- theepot
- theezakje
DescendantsEdit
- Afrikaans: tee
- → West Frisian: tee
- → Dutch Low Saxon: thee
- → Danish: te
- → Faroese: te
- → English: tea
- → French: thé
- → German: Tee
- → Icelandic: te
- → New Latin: thea
- → Latvian: tēja
- → Norwegian: te
- → Sranan Tongo: te
- → Swedish: te, the, thé
- → Finnish: tee
AnagramsEdit
Middle EnglishEdit
Etymology 1Edit
PronounEdit
thee
- Alternative form of þe (“thee”)
Etymology 2Edit
VerbEdit
thee
- Alternative form of theen
Old IrishEdit
AdjectiveEdit
thee
ScotsEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Old English þēoh, from Proto-Germanic *þeuhą, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tewk-.
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
thee (plural thees)
Etymology 2Edit
From Middle English theen, from Old English þēon, from Proto-Germanic *þinhaną.
VerbEdit
thee (third-person singular present thees, present participle theein, past theet, past participle theet)
Etymology 3Edit
From Middle English þe, from Old English þē (“thee”, originally dative, but later also accusative), from Proto-Germanic *þiz (“thee”), from Proto-Indo-European *te (“second-person singular pronoun”).
Alternative formsEdit
PronunciationEdit
PronounEdit
thee (subjective case thou, reflexive thysel, possessive determiner thy)
- (archaic outside Orkney and Shetland) thee, you (2nd person singular object pronoun, informal)
- (Orkney, Shetland) thou, you (2nd person singular subject pronoun, informal)
Usage notesEdit
- Regularly used throughout Scotland up until the middle of the 1800s; now only used as an archaism outside Shetland and Orkney.
ReferencesEdit
- “thou, pers. pron, v.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.