thee
English edit
Etymology 1 edit
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 Saterland Frisian die (“thee”), West Frisian dy (“thee”), German Low German di (“thee”), German dir (“thee”, dative pron.), Icelandic þér (“thee”). More at thou.
Pronunciation edit
Pronoun edit
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, act 1, scene 2, lines 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, “Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown”, Charles Wesley (music):
- 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, page 23:
- [H]e immediately perceived when I was taken ill, and, after seeing Mama, said to me "I am afraid Thee art not well thyself?"
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Ship”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 84:
- "He says he's our man, Bildad," said Peleg, "he wants to ship."
"Dost thee?" said Bildad, in a hollow tone
- 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin:
- "What does thee want, father?" said Rachel.
Alternative forms edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
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Verb edit
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, 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 also edit
Etymology 2 edit
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”).
Alternative forms edit
- the (Scotland)
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
thee (third-person singular simple present thees, present participle theeing, simple past and past participle theed)
- (intransitive, UK, obsolete) To thrive; prosper.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 33:
- Well mote thee, as well can wish your thought.
Derived terms edit
Etymology 3 edit
From Pitman zee, which it is related to phonetically and graphically, and the sound it represents.
Noun edit
thee (plural thees)
- The letter ⟨(⟩, which stands for the th sound /ð/ in Pitman shorthand.
Related terms edit
Etymology 4 edit
Respelling of the popularized by Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth.
Article edit
thee
- (very rare, nonstandard) Alternative spelling of the
Anagrams edit
Dutch edit
Alternative forms edit
- (obsolete) tee
Etymology edit
From Hokkien 茶 (tê). The "-h-" is a faux-Greek spelling (compare Greek τσάι (tsái)); the more basal spelling tee was previously common, especially in the early modern period, but is now obsolete.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
thee m (plural theeën, diminutive theetje n)
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
- Afrikaans: tee
- Berbice Creole Dutch: tei
- Negerhollands: thee, tee
- → Caribbean Javanese: teh
- → Dutch Low Saxon: thee
- → Danish: te
- → Faroese: te
- → English: tea
- Gullah: tea
- Jamaican Creole: tea
- → Abenaki: ti
- → Chickasaw: tii'
- → Cocopa: ṭi·
- → Cornish: té
- → Cree:
- → Inuktitut: ᑏ (tii)
- → Irish: tae
- → Maori: tī
- → Malecite-Passamaquoddy: ti
- → Mikasuki: ti'g'tlo'q, ji'gitlo'q (“kettle”) (from "tea kettle")
- → Panamint: tii
- → Scottish Gaelic: tì, teatha
- → Tamil: டீ (ṭī)
- → Telugu: టీ (ṭī)
- → Unami: ti
- → Welsh: te
- → French: thé
- → Kari'na: te
- → German: Tee
- → Icelandic: te
- → New Latin: thea
- → Latvian: tēja
- → Norwegian: te
- → Sranan Tongo: te
- → Swedish: te, the, thé
- → Finnish: tee
- → West Frisian: tee
Anagrams edit
Green Hmong edit
Etymology edit
From Thai ถ่าน (tàan) ("charcoal") or Lao ຖ່ານ (thān) ("charcoal"), ultimately from Middle Chinese 炭 (tʰɑnH) ("charcoal").
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
thee
Middle English edit
Etymology 1 edit
Pronoun edit
thee
- Alternative form of þe (“thee”)
Etymology 2 edit
Verb edit
thee
- Alternative form of theen
Old Irish edit
Adjective edit
thee
Scots edit
Etymology 1 edit
From Old English þēoh, from Proto-Germanic *þeuhą, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tewk-.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
thee (plural thees)
Etymology 2 edit
From Middle English theen, from Old English þēon, from Proto-Germanic *þinhaną.
Verb edit
thee (third-person singular simple present thees, present participle theein, simple past theet, past participle theet)
Etymology 3 edit
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 forms edit
Pronunciation edit
Pronoun edit
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 notes edit
- Regularly used throughout Scotland up until the middle of the 1800s; now only used as an archaism outside Shetland and Orkney.
References edit
- “thou, pers. pron, v.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
White Hmong edit
Etymology edit
From Thai ถ่าน (tàan) ("charcoal") or Lao ຖ່ານ (thān) ("charcoal"), ultimately from Middle Chinese 炭 (tʰɑnH) ("charcoal").
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
thee
Yola edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
From Middle English þe, from Old English þē.
Pronoun edit
thee
- thee[1]
- 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 40:
- Fho told thee?
- Who told thee?
- 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 78:
- Whileen to thee.
- That you may be upset.
- 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 1, page 84:
- Fade teil thee zo lournagh, co Joane, zo knaggee?
- What ails you so melancholy, quoth John, so cross?
- 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 2, page 84:
- Well, gosp, c'hull be zeid; mot thee fartoo, an fade;
- Well, gossip, it shall be told; you ask what ails me, and for what;
- 1867, “VERSES IN ANSWER TO THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 2, page 100:
- Craneen t' thee wee aam, thee luggès shell aake.
- Choking to thee with them. Thy ears shall ache.
- 1867, “VERSES IN ANSWER TO THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 3, page 100:
- Heal, griue, an kin, apaa thee, graacuse Forth,
- Health, wealth, and regard upon thee, gracious Forth,
Etymology 2 edit
From Middle English þi, apocopated variant of þin, from Old English þīn, from Proto-West Germanic *þīn.
Alternative forms edit
Determiner edit
thee
- thy, your[1]
- 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 31:
- Coome to thee met; Coome thee wyse.
- Come to thy meat; Come thy ways.
- 1867, “VERSES IN ANSWER TO THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 2, page 100:
- Craneen t' thee wee aam, thee luggès shell aake.
- Choking to thee with them. Thy ears shall ache.
- 1867, “VERSES IN ANSWER TO THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 3, page 100:
- Mye thee friend ne're waant welcome, nor straayart comfoort.
- May thy friend ne'er want welcome, nor the stranger comfort.
Derived terms edit
Etymology 3 edit
Pronoun edit
thee
- thou
- 1927, “LAMENT OF A WIDOW”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 130, lines 4[2]:
- Ochone! Jone, thee yart deed.
- Ochone, John, you are dead.
- 1927, “YOLA ZONG O BARONY VORTH”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 132, lines 9[2]:
- Co Sooney, "Billeen dowst thee zee faads lewer,
- Says Alice "Billy, do you see what's yonder?"
Derived terms edit
References edit
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Kathleen A. Browne (1927) The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth Series, Vol.17 No.2, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland