Definitions for Prithee
ˈprɪð iprithee

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. pritheeinterjection

   Short for "I pray thee", i.e. Please.

   "What tidings send our scouts? I prithee, speak. " - Henry VI part 1, William Shakespeare

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Prithee

   A familiar corruption of pray thee, or I pray thee, which some of the tragick writers have injudiciously used.

   Well, what was that scream for, I prithee? Roger L'Estrange.

   Alas! why com’st thou at this dreadful moment,
   To shock the peace of my departing soul?
   Away! I prithee leave me! Nicholas Rowe, Jane Shore.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Prithee

   Prithee is an archaic English interjection formed from a corruption of the phrase pray thee ([I] ask you [to]), which was initially an exclamation of contempt used to indicate a subject's triviality. The earliest recorded appearance of the word prithee listed in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1577, while it is most commonly found in works from the seventeenth century. The contraction is a form of indirect request that has disappeared from the language.Prithee is the most widely known example of second person object enclitics. Linguists consider it to have been the final step in the grammaticalisation of the verb pray. The eventual use of prithee outside the thee/thou usage signalled its transition into a discourse particle.There has been extensive scholarship investigating the difference in usage of prithee as opposed to pray you, both in terms of politeness and grammaticalisation. Because prithee eventually came to be used in the same context with the word you, it is considered to have developed into a monomorpheme. Prithee was almost always used as a parenthesis in order to introduce indirect questions and requests. Prithee and pray you often coincide in Early Modern English texts, and the difference between the two terms has been debated by scholars. Scholars such as Roger Brown and Albert Gilman have suggested that prithee was an ingroup indicator. Other scholars suggest that it is simply the more deferential form. The relationship between the two is complicated by the phrase beseech you, which was used in the same time period and was clearly the form used most deferentially.Although the closest Modern English equivalent of prithee is please, or "could", the two terms presume different attitudes within the addressee. While please accompanies a request addressing itself to the positive desire of the addressee, as in "if it please you," prithee accompanies a request which addresses itself to the threat of being answered in the negative, as though the request were against the addressee's wishes. Stated otherwise, the word please suggests that the person being addressed is willing to comply with the request, whereas the word prithee suggests that he or she is not willing. This switch from stating the speaker's contrary desire to stating the speaker's wish not to impose signaled a cultural shift in the English-speaking world in which politeness became stated negatively rather than positively. Wider repercussions are observable in the replacement of such phrases as "excuse me" and "pardon me," which request understanding or forgiveness, with "I am sorry," which instead acknowledges the speaker's remorse.In the Complete Works of Shakespeare, prithee occurs 228 times while pray thee occurs only 92 times.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Prithee

   a corruption of pray thee; as, I prithee; generally used without I

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:3.0 / 1 vote

1. Prithee

   prith′ē, a corruption of I pray thee.

How to pronounce Prithee?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say Prithee in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of Prithee in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of Prithee in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Prithee
2. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=Prithee
3. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prithee
4. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Prithee
5. ^ Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37683/37683-h/37683-h.htm#:~:text=Prithee