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pronoun
1.
Archaic (except in some elevated or ecclesiastical prose), Literary, or British Dialect.
a.
b.
(used nominatively for the second person singular, especially in polite address): Do ye not know me?
c.
(used objectively in the second person singular or plural): I have something to tell ye. Arise, the enemy is upon ye!
2.
(used with mock seriousness in an invocation, mild oath, or the like): Ye gods and little fishes!
Origin:
before 900; Middle English; Old English gē; cognate with Dutch gij, German ihr, Old Norse ēr, Gothic jus
before 900; Middle English; Old English gē; cognate with Dutch gij, German ihr, Old Norse ēr, Gothic jus
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Usage note
The word ye2, as in Ye Olde Booke Shoppe, is simply an archaic spelling of the definite article the. The use of the letter Y was a printer's adaptation of the thorn, þ, the character in the Old English alphabet representing the th- sounds (th) and (th̸) in Modern English; Y was the closest symbol in the Roman alphabet. Originally, the form would have been rendered as
or ye. The pronunciation today is a spelling pronunciation.
The word ye2, as in Ye Olde Booke Shoppe, is simply an archaic spelling of the definite article the. The use of the letter Y was a printer's adaptation of the thorn, þ, the character in the Old English alphabet representing the th- sounds (th) and (th̸) in Modern English; Y was the closest symbol in the Roman alphabet. Originally, the form would have been rendered as
or ye. The pronunciation today is a spelling pronunciation. 00:10
Ye
is always a great word to know.
So is bezoar. Does it mean:
| a gadget; dingus; thingumbob. |
| a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison. |
thou
1
[th
ou] pronoun, sing., nom. thou; possessive thy or thine; objective thee; pl., nom. you or ye; possessive your or yours; objective you or ye; verb pronoun
1.
( Archaic except in some elevated or ecclesiastical prose ) the personal pronoun of the second person singular in the nominative case (used to denote the person or thing addressed): Thou shalt not kill.
2.
(used by the Friends) a familiar form of address of the second person singular.
verb (used with object)
3.
to address as “thou.”
verb (used without object)
4.
to use “thou” in discourse.
Origin:
before 900; Middle English; Old English thū; cognate with German, Middle Dutch du, Old Norse thū, Gothic thu, Old Irish tú, Welsh, Cornish ti, Latin tū, Doric Greek tý, Lithuanian tù, OCS ty; akin to Sanskrit tvam; (v.) late Middle English thowen, derivative of the pronoun
before 900; Middle English; Old English thū; cognate with German, Middle Dutch du, Old Norse thū, Gothic thu, Old Irish tú, Welsh, Cornish ti, Latin tū, Doric Greek tý, Lithuanian tù, OCS ty; akin to Sanskrit tvam; (v.) late Middle English thowen, derivative of the pronoun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
|
Link To ye
Collins
World English Dictionary
thou1 (ðaʊ) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —pron | |
| 1. | archaic, dialect refers to the person addressed: used mainly in familiar address or to a younger person or inferior |
| 2. | (usually capital) refers to God when addressed in prayer, etc |
| [Old English thū; related to Old Saxon thū, Old High German du, Old Norse thū, Latin tū, Doric Greek tu] | |
| thou2 (θaʊ) | |
| —n , pl thous, thou | |
| 1. | one thousandth of an inch. 1 thou is equal to 0.0254 millimetre |
| 2. | informal short for thousand |
| ye1 (jiː, (unstressed) jɪ) | |
| —pron | |
| 1. | archaic, dialect or refers to more than one person including the person addressed but not including the speaker |
| 2. | dialect Also: ee refers to one person addressed: I tell ye |
| [Old English gē; related to Dutch gij, Old Norse ēr, Gothic jus] | |
| ye2 (ðiː, (spelling pron) jiː) | |
| —determiner | |
| a form of the, used in conjunction with other putative archaic spellings: ye olde oake | |
| [from a misinterpretation of the as written in some Middle English texts. The runic letter thorn (Þ, representing th) was incorrectly transcribed as y because of a resemblance in their shapes] | |
| ye3 | |
| —the internet domain name for | |
| Yemen | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
ye
O.E. ge, nom. pl. of 2nd pers. pronoun þu (see thou); cognate with O.Fris. ji, O.S. gi, M.Du. ghi, Du. gij. Altered, by influence of we, from an earlier form that was similar to Goth. jus "you (pl.)" (see you). Cognate
with Lith. jus, Skt. yuyam, Avestan yuzem, Gk. hymeis. The -r- in O.N. er, Ger. ihr probably is from infl. of the 1st pers. pl. pronouns (O.N. ver, Ger. wir).
ye
old or quaintly archaic way of writing the, in which the -y- is a 16c. graphic alteration of þ, an O.E. character (generally called "thorn," originally a Gmc. rune; see th-) that represented the "hard" -th- sound at the beginning of the. Early printers, whose types were
founded on the continent, did not have a þ, so they substituted y as the letter that looked most like it. But in such usages it was not pronounced "y." Ye for the (and yt for that) continued in manuscripts through 18c. Revived 19c. as a deliberate antiquarianism; the Ye Olde _____ construction was being mocked by 1896.
thou
2nd nominative singular personal pronoun, O.E. þu, from P.Gmc. *thu (cf. O.Fris. thu, M.Du., M.L.G. du, O.H.G., Ger. du, O.N. þu, Goth. þu), from PIE *tu-, second person singular pronoun (cf. L. tu, Ir. tu, Welsh ti, Gk. su, Lith. tu, O.C.S. ty, Skt. twa-m). Superseded in M.E. by plural
form you (from a different root), but retained in certain dialects (e.g. Philadelphia Quakers). The plural at first was used in addressing superior individuals, later also (to err on the side of propriety) strangers, and ultimately all equals. By c.1450 the use of thou to address inferiors gave it a tinge of insult unless addressed by parents to children, or intimates to one another. Hence the verb meaning "to use 'thou' to a person" (c.1440).
"Avaunt, caitiff, dost thou thou me! I am come of good kin, I tell thee!" ["Hickscorner," c.1530]A brief history of the second person pronoun in Eng. can be found here.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary
thou definition[θɑʊ]
|
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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FOLDOC
American Heritage
Abbreviations & Acronyms
| thou thousand |
The American Heritage® Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Nearby Words
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