What does thou mean?

Definitions for thou
θaʊthou

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word thou.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. thousand, one thousand, 1000, M, K, chiliad, G, grand, thou, yardnoun

    the cardinal number that is the product of 10 and 100

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Thounoun

    in the oblique cases singular thee, þe , Saxon; in the plural ye, ge , Saxon; in the oblique cases plural you, eow , Saxon.

    Etymology: þu , Saxon; du, Dutch;

    Is this a dagger which I see before me,
    The handle tow’rd my hand? Come let me clutch thee.
    I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
    Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
    To feeling as to sight. William Shakespeare, Macbeth.

    I am as like to call thee so again,
    To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too,
    If thou wilt lend this money lend it not
    As to thy friend. William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice.

    Thou, if there be a thou in this base town,
    Who dares with angry Eupolis to frown;
    Who at enormous villany turns pale,
    And steers against it with a full-blown sail. Dryden.

  2. To Thouverb

    To treat with familiarity.

    Etymology: from thou.

    Taunt him with the licence of ink; if thou thou’st him some thrice, it shall not be amiss. William Shakespeare.

Wikipedia

  1. Thou

    The word thou is a second-person singular pronoun in English. It is now largely archaic, having been replaced in most contexts by the word you. It is used in parts of Northern England and in Scots (/ðu/). Thou is the nominative form; the oblique/objective form is thee (functioning as both accusative and dative), the possessive is thy (adjective) or thine (as an adjective before a vowel or as a pronoun) and the reflexive is thyself. When thou is the grammatical subject of a finite verb in the indicative mood, the verb form typically ends in -(e)st (e.g., "thou goest"; "thou do(e)st"), but in some cases just -t (e.g., "thou art"; "thou shalt"). Originally, thou was simply the singular counterpart to the plural pronoun ye, derived from an ancient Indo-European root. In Middle English, thou was sometimes abbreviated by putting a small "u" over the letter thorn: þͧ. Starting in the 1300s, thou and thee were used to express familiarity, formality, contempt, for addressing strangers, superiors, inferiors, or in situations when indicating singularity to avoid confusion was needed; concurrently, the plural forms, ye and you began to also be used for singular: typically for addressing rulers, superiors, equals, inferiors, parents, younger persons, and significant others. In the 17th century, thou fell into disuse in the standard language, often regarded as impolite, but persisted, sometimes in an altered form, in regional dialects of England and Scotland, as well as in the language of such religious groups as the Society of Friends. The use of the pronoun is also still present in poetry. Early English translations of the Bible used the familiar singular form of the second person, which mirrors common usage trends in other languages. The familiar and singular form is used when speaking to God in French (in Protestantism both in past and present, in Catholicism since the post-Vatican II reforms), German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Scottish Gaelic and many others (all of which maintain the use of an "informal" singular form of the second person in modern speech). In addition, the translators of the King James Version of the Bible attempted to maintain the distinction found in Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic and Koine Greek between singular and plural second-person pronouns and verb forms, so they used thou, thee, thy, and thine for singular, and ye, you, your, and yours for plural. In standard modern English, thou continues to be used in formal religious contexts, in wedding ceremonies, in literature that seeks to reproduce archaic language, and in certain fixed phrases such as "fare thee well". For this reason, many associate the pronoun with solemnity or formality. Many dialects have compensated for the lack of a singular/plural distinction caused by the disappearance of thou and ye through the creation of new plural pronouns or pronominals, such as yinz, yous and y'all or the colloquial you guys. Ye remains common in some parts of Ireland, but the examples just given vary regionally and are usually restricted to colloquial speech.

ChatGPT

  1. thou

    Thou is an old-fashioned, traditional or archaic English word used as a singular form of "you." It is typically used in old literature, religious texts, poetry, or by people trying to evoke old English. It was traditionally used to address a person in an informal or familiar way. Though it is mostly obsolete in modern English, it continues to be used in some regional dialects.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Thou

    the second personal pronoun, in the singular number, denoting the person addressed; thyself; the pronoun which is used in addressing persons in the solemn or poetical style

  2. Thouverb

    to address as thou, esp. to do so in order to treat with insolent familiarity or contempt

  3. Thouverb

    to use the words thou and thee in discourse after the manner of the Friends

Wikidata

  1. Thou

    The word thou is a second person singular pronoun in English. It is now largely archaic, having been replaced in almost all contexts by you. It is used in parts of Northern England and by Scots. Thou is the nominative form; the oblique/objective form is thee, and the possessive is thy or thine. When thou is the grammatical subject of a finite verb in the indicative mood, the verb form ends on t, most often with the ending -st, but in some cases just -t. In Middle English, thou was sometimes abbreviated by putting a small "u" over the letter thorn: þͧ. Originally, thou was simply the singular counterpart to the plural pronoun ye, derived from an ancient Indo-European root. Following a process found in other Indo-European languages, thou was later used to express intimacy, familiarity or even disrespect, while another pronoun, you, the oblique/objective form of ye, was used for formal circumstances. In the 17th century, thou fell into disuse in the standard language but persisted, sometimes in altered form, in regional dialects of England and Scotland, as well as in the language of such religious groups as the Society of Friends. Early English translations of the Bible used thou and never you as the singular second-person pronoun, with the double effect of maintaining thou in usage and also imbuing it with an air of religious solemnity that is antithetical to its former sense of familiarity or disrespect. The use of the pronoun was also common in poetry.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Thou

    thow, pron. of the second person sing., the person addressed (now generally used only in solemn address). [A.S. ðú; cog. with Goth. thu, Gr. tu, L. tu, Sans. tva-m.]

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. THOU

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Thou is ranked #81181 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Thou surname appeared 233 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Thou.

    88.4% or 206 total occurrences were Asian.
    8.1% or 19 total occurrences were White.
    2.1% or 5 total occurrences were of two or more races.

Matched Categories

How to pronounce thou?

How to say thou in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of thou in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of thou in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

Examples of thou in a Sentence

  1. John Donne:

    Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadfull, for thou art not so, For, those, whom thou thinkst, thou dost overthrow, die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

  2. Pope Francis:

    The commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' has absolute value and applies to both the innocent and the guilty.

  3. Christopher Marlowe:

    O, thou art fairer than the evening air clad in the beauty of a thousand stars.

  4. Pinarius:

    As thou hast sown, so shalt thou reap.

  5. Aeschylus:

    O Death the Healer, scorn thou not, I pray, To come to me: of cureless ills thou art The one physician. Pain lays not its touch Upon a corpse.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

thou#1#5514#10000

Translations for thou

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

Get even more translations for thou »

Translation

Find a translation for the thou definition in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Word of the Day

Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?

Please enter your email address:


Citation

Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"thou." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/thou>.

Discuss these thou definitions with the community:

0 Comments

    Are we missing a good definition for thou? Don't keep it to yourself...

    Image or illustration of

    thou

    Credit »

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Chrome

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Firefox

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Browse Definitions.net

    Quiz

    Are you a words master?

    »
    flee; take to one's heels; cut and run
    A famish
    B scarper
    C affront
    D abash

    Nearby & related entries:

    Alternative searches for thou: