Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • pronoun Used as the direct object of a verb.
  • pronoun Used as the indirect object of a verb.
  • pronoun Used as the object of a preposition.
  • pronoun Used in the nominative as well as the objective case, especially by members of the Society of Friends.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • The objective case of thou.
  • Thy: as, where's thee manners ?
  • To thrive; prosper.
  • The form theech, from thee ich, is also found in the phrase so theech, so may I thrive; also so theek.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb obsolete To thrive; to prosper.
  • pronoun The objective case of thou. See thou.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The name of the letter ⟨(⟩, which stands for the th sound IPA: /ð/ in Pitman shorthand.
  • pronoun archaic, literary Objective case of thou.
  • pronoun Thou.
  • verb intransitive, archaic, literary To thrive; prosper.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English thee, the, from Old English þē ("thee", originally dative, but later also accusative), from Proto-Germanic *þiz (“thee”), from Proto-Indo-European *te- (“second-person singular pronoun”). Cognate with German Low German du ("thee"), German dir ("thee", dative pron.), Icelandic þér ("thee"). More at thou.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English theen ("to increase, prosper, flourish"), from Old English þēon ("to thrive, prosper, flourish, grow"), from Proto-Germanic *þinhanan (“to thrive, succeed”), from Proto-Indo-European *tenk-, *tenkh- (“to succeed, turn out well”). Cognate with Dutch gedijen ("to flourish, thrive, prosper, succeed"), German gedeihen ("to thrive"), Gothic  (gaþeihan, "to increase, thrive").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word thee.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • i want to call you thou, the sound

    of the shape of the start

    of a kiss — like this, thou —

    and to say, after, i love,

    thou, i love, thou i love, not

    i love you.

    because i so do —

    as we say now — i want to say

    thee, i adore, i adore thee,

    and to know in my lips

    the syntax of love resides,

    and to gaze in thine eyes.

    love’s language starts, stops, starts;

    the right words flowing or clotting in the heart.

    - c. a. d

    January 9, 2007