Source etymology 1
Original entry ↗pron
Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventoryNominative singular of ye (“you”).
From Middle English thou, tho, thogh, thoue, thouȝ, thow, thowe, tou, towe, thu, thue, thugh, tu, you (Northern England), ðhu, þeou, þeu, þou (the latter three early Southwest England), from Old English þū, from Proto-West Germanic *þū, from Proto-Germanic *þū (“you (singular), thou”), from Proto-Indo-European *túh₂ (“you, thou”). cognates and usage evolution The English word is cognate with Saterland Frisian du (“thou”), West Frisian do (“thou”), dialectal Dutch du, dou, douw (“thou”), Limburgish doe (“thou”), Low German du (“thou”), dialectal German dau (“thou”), German du (“thou”), Danish du (“thou”), Swedish du (“thou”), Norwegian Nynorsk du (“thou”), Faroese tú (“thou”), Icelandic þú (“thou”), Gothic 𐌸𐌿 (þu, “thou”), Latin tu, Ancient Greek σύ (sú) (Doric Ancient Greek τύ (tú), Greek εσύ (esý)), Irish tú, Lithuanian tu, Old Church Slavonic тꙑ (ty), Welsh ti, Armenian դու (du), Albanian ti, Persian تو (to), Gujarati તું (tũ), Hindi तू (tū). The informality of thou and its replacement by ye in formal situations date only to the 14th century and come from French influence, since French (as many European languages, but not Old English) uses the second-person plural (vous) instead of the second-person singular (tu) as a mark of politeness or respect.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
- Inherited-form mentionthouenm
- Inherited-form mentionþūang
- Inherited-form mention*þūgmw-pro
- Inherited-form mention*þūgem-pro · you (singular), thou
- Derivation mention*túh₂ine-pro · you, thou
- Cognate mentiondustq · thou
- Cognate mentiondofy · thou
- Cognate mentiondunl
- Cognate mentiondoeli · thou
- Cognate mentiondunds · thou
- Cognate mentiondaude · thou
- Cognate mentiondude · thou
- Cognate mentionduda · thou
- Cognate mentiondusv · thou
- Cognate mentiondunn · thou
- Cognate mentiontúfo · thou
- Cognate mentionþúis · thou
- Cognate mention𐌸𐌿got · thou
- Cognate mentiontula
- Cognate mentionσύgrc
- Cognate mentionτύgrc
- Cognate mentionεσύel
- Cognate mentiontúga
- Cognate mentiontult
- Cognate mentionтꙑcu
- Cognate mentionticy
- Cognate mentionդուhy
- Cognate mentiontisq
- Cognate mentionتوfa
- Cognate mentionતુંgu
- Cognate mentionतूhi
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "thou"
},
"expansion": "Middle English thou"
},
{
"name": "qualifier",
"args": {
"1": "Northern England"
},
"expansion": "(Northern England)"
},
{
"name": "qualifier",
"args": {
"1": "the latter three early Southwest England"
},
"expansion": "(the latter three early Southwest England)"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ang",
"3": "þū"
},
"expansion": "Old English þū"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gmw-pro",
"3": "*þū"
},
"expansion": "Proto-West Germanic *þū"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gem-pro",
"3": "*þū",
"t": "you (singular), thou"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Germanic *þū (“you (singular), thou”)"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*túh₂",
"t": "you, thou"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *túh₂ (“you, thou”)"
},
{
"name": "col-top",
"args": {
"1": "2",
"2": "cognates and usage evolution"
},
"expansion": "cognates and usage evolution"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "stq",
"2": "du",
"t": "thou"
},
"expansion": "Saterland Frisian du (“thou”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "fy",
"2": "do",
"t": "thou"
},
"expansion": "West Frisian do (“thou”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "nl",
"2": "du"
},
"expansion": "Dutch du"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "li",
"2": "doe",
"t": "thou"
},
"expansion": "Limburgish doe (“thou”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "nds",
"2": "du",
"t": "thou"
},
"expansion": "Low German du (“thou”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "de",
"2": "dau",
"t": "thou"
},
"expansion": "German dau (“thou”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "de",
"2": "du",
"t": "thou"
},
"expansion": "German du (“thou”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "da",
"2": "du",
"t": "thou"
},
"expansion": "Danish du (“thou”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "sv",
"2": "du",
"t": "thou"
},
"expansion": "Swedish du (“thou”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "nn",
"2": "du",
"t": "thou"
},
"expansion": "Norwegian Nynorsk du (“thou”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "fo",
"2": "tú",
"t": "thou"
},
"expansion": "Faroese tú (“thou”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "is",
"2": "þú",
"t": "thou"
},
"expansion": "Icelandic þú (“thou”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "got",
"2": "𐌸𐌿",
"t": "thou"
},
"expansion": "Gothic 𐌸𐌿 (þu, “thou”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "la",
"2": "tu"
},
"expansion": "Latin tu"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "grc",
"2": "σύ"
},
"expansion": "Ancient Greek σύ (sú)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "grc",
"2": "τύ"
},
"expansion": "Ancient Greek τύ (tú)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "el",
"2": "εσύ"
},
"expansion": "Greek εσύ (esý)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "ga",
"2": "tú"
},
"expansion": "Irish tú"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "lt",
"2": "tu"
},
"expansion": "Lithuanian tu"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "cu",
"2": "тꙑ"
},
"expansion": "Old Church Slavonic тꙑ (ty)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "cy",
"2": "ti"
},
"expansion": "Welsh ti"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "hy",
"2": "դու"
},
"expansion": "Armenian դու (du)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "sq",
"2": "ti"
},
"expansion": "Albanian ti"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "fa",
"2": "تو",
"tr": "to"
},
"expansion": "Persian تو (to)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "gu",
"2": "તું"
},
"expansion": "Gujarati તું (tũ)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "hi",
"2": "तू"
},
"expansion": "Hindi तू (tū)"
},
{
"name": "sup",
"args": {
"1": "1"
},
"expansion": "¹"
},
{
"name": "sup",
"args": {
"1": "1"
},
"expansion": "¹"
}
],
"links": [
[
"thou",
"thou#Middle_English"
],
[
"tho",
"tho#Middle_English"
],
[
"thogh",
"thogh#Middle_English"
],
[
"thoue",
"thoue#Middle_English"
],
[
"thouȝ",
"thouȝ#Middle_English"
],
[
"thow",
"thow#Middle_English"
],
[
"thowe",
"thowe#Middle_English"
],
[
"tou",
"tou#Middle_English"
],
[
"towe",
"towe#Middle_English"
],
[
"thu",
"thu#Middle_English"
],
[
"thue",
"thue#Middle_English"
],
[
"thugh",
"thugh#Middle_English"
],
[
"tu",
"tu#Middle_English"
],
[
"you",
"you#Middle_English"
],
[
"ðhu",
"ðhu#Middle_English"
],
[
"þeou",
"þeou#Middle_English"
],
[
"þeu",
"þeu#Middle_English"
],
[
"þou",
"þou#Middle_English"
],
[
"þū",
"þu#Old_English"
],
[
"*þū",
"Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/þū"
],
[
"*þū",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/þū"
],
[
"*túh₂",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/túh₂"
],
[
"du",
"du#Saterland_Frisian"
],
[
"do",
"do#West_Frisian"
],
[
"du",
"du#Dutch"
],
[
"dou",
"dou#Dutch"
],
[
"douw",
"douw#Dutch"
],
[
"doe",
"doe#Limburgish"
],
[
"du",
"du#Low_German"
],
[
"dau",
"dau#German"
],
[
"du",
"du#German"
],
[
"du",
"du#Danish"
],
[
"du",
"du#Swedish"
],
[
"du",
"du#Norwegian_Nynorsk"
],
[
"tú",
"tú#Faroese"
],
[
"þú",
"þú#Icelandic"
],
[
"𐌸𐌿",
"𐌸𐌿#Gothic"
],
[
"tu",
"tu#Latin"
],
[
"σύ",
"σύ#Ancient_Greek"
],
[
"τύ",
"τύ#Ancient_Greek"
],
[
"εσύ",
"εσύ#Greek"
],
[
"tú",
"tú#Irish"
],
[
"tu",
"tu#Lithuanian"
],
[
"тꙑ",
"тꙑ#Old_Church_Slavonic"
],
[
"ti",
"ti#Welsh"
],
[
"դու",
"դու#Armenian"
],
[
"ti",
"ti#Albanian"
],
[
"تو",
"تو#Persian"
],
[
"તું",
"તું#Gujarati"
],
[
"तू",
"तू#Hindi"
],
[
"vous",
"vous#French"
],
[
"tu",
"tu#French"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "pron",
"glosses": [
"Nominative singular of ye (“you”)."
],
"tags": [
"archaic",
"dialectal",
"form-of",
"literary",
"nominative",
"singular"
],
"recordId": "c167adefecac7f8468c8abfb351ccde589ed7104813c0c9fa168ea704c65e5f3",
"rawRecordSha256": "1f8c9ca51cccb50cc2303da49760e00d23232ccda350acc7a67068c5bd4841b1",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 8253
}
],
"omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
"templates": 0,
"links": 0,
"references": 0,
"descendants": 0,
"lexicalRecords": 0,
"lexicalSenses": 0,
"glosses": 0
}
}