(ME. þ-), a clipped form of some unstressed monosyllables, esp. when the following word begins with a vowel or h.

1

  1.  = THE.

2

  Still dial. in Lanc., etc.: cf. T’ 2. See also I’TH’.

3

1154.  O. E. Chron., Þe munekes … on cyricen byrieden þabbot hehlice.

4

c. 1200.  Ormin, 5937. Tatt himm ummbeshorenn wass Hiss shapp o þalde wise.

5

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Wace, 5734. Þapostles holy lyf.

6

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., C. 325. Þacces of anguych watz hid in my sawle.

7

1414–5.  Plumpton Corr. (Camden), p. cxx. Sir Marmaduke Constable thelder, knight,… on thone partie, & Sir Robert Plompton … on thother partie.

8

1485.  Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 8. To be levied by thands of Thomas Combes.

9

1533.  More, Apol., 283. More old than thage of eyght hundred yere.

10

1623.  Shaks.’s Lear, IV. vi. 238. Least that th’infection … take … hold on thee. Ibid., Temp., II. i. 120. To th’shore. Ibid., 131. Which end o’ th’beame should bow.

11

1883.  Almondbury & Huddersfield Gloss., s.v. T, Th’ man i’th’ mooin.

12

  † 2.  = THOU. Obs.

13

c. 1315.  Shoreham, I. 94. Þorwe þat blod þi soule his [= is] bouȝt … And þorwe þat water i-wessche þart.

14

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 8015. Þer wot no man of wham þart come.

15

c. 1500.  Debate Carp. Tools, 6, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 79. Th’ all neuer be thryfty man.

16

a. 1586.  Sidney, Arcadia, III. Countrie Song, 99. I rather would my sheepe Thad’st killed with a stroke.

17

1594.  Greene & Lodge, Looking Glasse (Hunter. Cl.), 25. Well sirrha well, thart as thart, and so ile take thee.

18

  † 3.  THEY. Obs.

19

c. 1540.  in Weever, Anc. Fun. Mon. (1631), 282. God grant hem euirlastyng lyff, To whom we hop thar gon.

20

1707.  E. Ward, Hud. Rediv., II. VII. 18. Th’ad put the holy Puppet on A Surplice.

21