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Th. World English Historical Dictionary

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Th. World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Slice Contents Key Bibliographic Record Murray’s New English Dictionary. 1916, rev. 2022. Th in words of Old English or Old Norse origin, and in words from Greek, is a consonantal digraph representing a simple sound, or rather (in Teutonic words), a pair of simple sounds, breath and voice, indicated in this dictionary by the OE. letters (þ) and (ð); the former, as in thin, bath, being the breath dental spirant akin to t, and the latter, as in then, bathe, the voiced dental spirant akin to d. The group t, d, þ, ð, corresponds to the group p, b, f, v. The breath spirant is identical with modern Greek theta (Θ, θ), and approximately with Spanish z (or c before e, i). The Greek letter, which corresponds etymologically to Sanskrit dh (and so, by Grimm’s Law, to Teutonic and English D), was in early inscriptions represented by TH, and was a true aspirate; it was subsequently often written TΘ, τθ, and had prob. the sound (tþ); but by the second century B.C. it had sunk into a simple sound, = our (þ). The Romans, having neither the sound nor the symbol, represented the letter by TH, as in Θάψος, Thapsus, but app. this was pronounced, at least in late Latin (whence in all the Romanic languages), as simple t; cf. Greek θεωρία, L. theōria, It. and Sp. teoria; in Pg. theoria, F. théorie, spelt with th, pronounced with t; also Gr. θωμᾶς, L. Thōmās, It. Toma, Sp. Tomás; Pg., F., Eng. Thomas all pronounced with T.

1   (2)  In Teutonic the breath spirant (þ) was very frequent, being the regular etymological representative of Indo-Eur. t initially or after the stressed vowel, as in OTeut. *þrijiz, Goth. þreis, OE. þreo, Eng. three, = Indo-Eur. *treies, Skr. trayas, Gr. τρεῖς, L. trēs; OTeut. *brôþer, Goth. brôþar, OE. brōþōr, brōðor, Eng. brother, = Indo-Eur. bhrā·tēr, Gr. φρᾱτηρ clansman, L. frā·ter. The voiced spirant in brōðor, etc., was a later development (c. 700 in English) from the breath sound between vowels or voiced consonants, as in the parallel v and z from f and s. Initially, the same change of (þ) to (ð) took place during the Middle English period in the demonstrative group of words, the, that, and their kindred, this, these, † tho, those, there, then, than, thence, thither, thus, etc., and in the pronouns of the second person singular, thou, thee, thine, thy: these constitute the only words in English with initial (ð). In the same group of words in the cognate Teutonic languages (þ) has passed through (ð) into (d); thus Ger. das, Du. dat, Da., Sw. det ‘that’; in High Ger., Low Ger., and Du. the same has taken place even in other original th words which retain (þ) in English; e.g., Ger. dach, denken, ding, dick, donner, drei = Eng. thatch, think, thing, thick, thunder, three.

2   (3)  In the demonstrative and pronominal groups of words, change of initial þ to t, by assimilation to a preceding dental (t, d, s), appears in earlier English. OE. þæt þe became þæt-te, þætte; þe læs þe appears in the 11th c. as þe læste, whence modern lest. In the last section of the OE. Chronicle, from 1132, þe after t or d regularly becomes te (e.g., þat te king, and te eorles). In the Ormulum and the Cotton MS. of Cursor Mundi, this assimilation is seen in all the words of the the-thou group (Orm. þatt tatt te goddspell meneþþ, wrohht tiss boc, and tatt te follc all þess te bett; Cursor, ne was tar, here and tare, scho serued taim, als sais te sau). So in Ancren Riwle (and tet is, et tesse uerse, þeo þet tus doð, and tes oðer, etc.). In the course of the 14th c., this assimilation was given up, and the spirant reappeared (as ð).

3   (4)  In the Runic alphabet (futhorc) the breath spirant had to itself a symbol ᚦ or þ (called thorn); but in the earliest known OE. writings in the Roman alphabet this was represented by th, the voiced spirant being often represented by d (d) (sometimes by th). Before 700 probably, the character ð, formed by a bar across the stem of d, was introduced; it appears in a charter of Wihtræd, king of Kent, 700–715 (Sweet, Oldest English Texts, 428). Apparently it was first used to denote the voiced spirant: see the proper names in the Moore MS. of Bæda, c. 737, and the Liber Vitæ, Cott. MS., c. 800, and charters before 800 generally. But in the ninth century it was used for both spirants, as in the Vespasian Psalter, c. 825 (e.g., iv. 5 ða ðe cweoðað), and in a West Saxon charter of 847 (O. E. T., 433). Somewhere about 800 apparently, the thorn, þ, was adopted from the Runic futhorc, the earliest charter showing it being one of Coenwulf, king of Mercia, of 811 (O. E. T., 456); but it was not much used till late in the 9th c. A Surrey charter a. 889 (ibid., 451) has 34 examples of ð initial, and 25 medial or final, with 49 of þ initial, and 1 medial. From the later years of the 9th c. ð and þ were used promiscuously in West Saxon works, with some preponderance of þ initially and ð finally. This continued in ME. till the 13th c. On the other hand, the Durham Rituale and the Lindisfarne Gospel Gloss, c. 950, have uniformly ð in all positions (except in the compendium ꝥ for ðæt), as has also the East Anglian Genesis & Exodus, c. 1250; while the Mercian portion of the Rushworth Gospel Gloss, c. 975, and Ormin, c. 1200, have only þ. After 1250 the ð speedily became obsolete; þ remained in use, but was gradually restricted more or less to the pronominal and demonstrative words. In later times its MS. form approached, and at times became identical with, that of y (the latter being sometimes distinguished by having a dot placed over it). As the continental type used by Caxton had no þ, its place in print was usually supplied by th for both sounds and in all positions. But in Scotland, the early printers, especially in the demonstrative and pronominal words, continued the þ as y, as in y2, yis, yat, you (= thou), a practice also common in England in MS., and hardly yet extinct. Confusion with the modern y consonant, ME. ȝ, was avoided in Scotland, sometimes by writing the latter yh, but usually by continuing ME. ȝ in the form ʓ or z, so that ye zeir stood for þe ȝeir, i.e., the year. It is remarkable that, when OE. þ and ð were both in use, no attempt was made to differentiate them as breath and voice spirants, and app. no serious attempt even to distinguish them as initial and medio-final, as was done in Norwegian when the Roman alphabet was adopted, c. 1200, and in Icelandic before 1300. At an earlier date (prob. c. 800) the character ð was partially adopted from OE. in Old Saxon, and was used generally in the middle and end of words, while th was usual as the breath spirant initially.

4   (5)  In a few compounds, as anthill, outhouse, lighthouse, Chatham, Wytham, Yetholm, etc., t and h come together but do not form a digraph; and in a few foreign words, chiefly East Indian, as Thakoor, Thug, th represents Skr. th or ṭh, the sound being a t or ṭ followed by a slight aspiration (th, ṭh), in Eng. commonly reduced to t.

5   In a few proper names and other words derived from or influenced by French, as Thomas, Thompson, thyme, th is pronounced as t; several other words were formerly so treated, and even spelt with t, e.g., theatre, theme, theology, throne, authentic, orthography: t has become fixed in treacle, treasure. The late L. and Romanic treatment of th as t often led to the spelling th where t was etymological, as in Thames, Sathan; in amaranth, amianthus, author, etc., the corruption has also affected the pronunciation. See the individual words. In some ME. MSS. th frequently appears for t or for d: e.g., tho to, thyll till, myghth might, nyghth night, whythe white; thede deed, theer deer, thegree degree, thepartyth departed, tho do, thogh doth, abothe abode, groundeth grounded, iclodeth y-clothed, lowthe loud, rothe rood, unther under. Early ME. scribes (prob. Norman) often confounded the English letters þ (or ð) and ȝ, writing e.g., ȝefinge for þefinge, thieving, wiȝ, worȝ, wroȝ for wiþ, worþ, wroþ (in Auchinleck MS. of Florice and Bl.).

6   (6)  Etymologically, modern Eng. th (ð) often represents an OE. d, esp. before r or er, as in father, mother, gather, hither, together, etc.; dialectally, this sometimes extends to other words, as bladder, ladder solder; on the other hand some dialects retain original d, and extend it to other words, as brother, further, rather, southern-wood, wether. In burden and murder, d represents the earlier ð of burthen, murther.

7   Dialectally th is sometimes substituted for f, and vice versa: e.g., thane, thetch, thistolow, thrail, thrae, throm, thurrow, for fane, fetch (vetch), fistula, frail (flail), frae, from, furrow; also fill, Fuirsday, for THILL, THURSDAY. The Welsh name Llewelyn appears in Eng. as Thlewelyn (Rolls of Parl., I. 463/1, Edw. I. or II.), and Fluellen (Shaks., Hen, V.). Th also occurs dialectally for wh, as in thirl, thortleberry, thorl, for whirl, whortleberry, whorl. Conversely, Sc. has whaing, whang, white, whittle, for thwaing, thwang, thwite, thwittle.

8   1.  The digraph th and its sound.

9 [c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), xv. 71. We hafe in oure speche in Ingland twa oþer letters þan þai [Saracens] hafe in þaire abce, þat es to say, þ and ȝ, whilk er called þorn and ȝok.]

10 a. 1637.  B. Jonson, Eng. Gram., Wks. (Rtldg.), 775/2. Th Hath a double and doubtful sound. Ibid., 776/.2 Some syllabes, as the, then, there, that … are often compendiously and shortly written, as ye yen yere yt.

11 1668.  O. Price, Eng. Orthogr., 24. Q. What is the sound of th? A. Th makes a hard sound in thunder, through, thick, thin [etc.]. But, th, makes a softer sound in that, thine, worthy, father [etc.].

12 1730–6.  Bailey (folio), Th, in English is … but one Letter, or a Litera aspirata.

13 1863.  Melville Bell, Princ. Speech, 180. We confound the two sounds [þ and ð] by using for both the same digraph [th].

14   2.  Th. is an abbreviation of THORIUM, THURSDAY.

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