Forms: see below. [An unstressed and phonetically weakened form of THAT dem. pron., used to subordinate one predication to another.
The Common Indo-Eur. had no relative pronoun, which has been developed separately in the different linguistic families. In Latin it was evolved out of the interrogative, in Teutonic chiefly out of the demonstrative. But even within the Teutonic languages the relative is differently formed (see Wright, Gothic Grammar, § 270, Old Eng. Grammar, § 468). In mod. English it is expressed by thăt, from the demonstrative pron., and by who (whom), which, what (after L. qui, quæ, quod, F. qui, que, quel) from the interrogative pronouns. In northern dialect, ME. and mod., it is commonly expressed by AT, ’AT, rel. pron. In OE. it was expressed (1) by the simple demonstrative se, séo, þæt; (2) by the particle þe; (3) by þe preceded by a personal pronoun or the demonstrative. For þe, see THE conjunctive particle. The use of the demonstrative as a relative appears to have come about simply by the subordination of the second of two originally consecutive sentences to the first; thus, ‘he came to a river; thát (or this) was broad and deep,’ whence ‘he came to a river thăt was broad and deep.’ In OE. it is sometimes impossible to determine whether the pronoun of the second clause is still demonstrative or has become relative. Thus the words in the OE. version of Bæda’s History, I. xii. (1890), 52, ‘Hi wæron Wihtgylses suna . þæs fæder wæs Witta haten . þæs fæder wæs Wihta haten . and þæs Wihta fæder wæs Woden nemned,’ might be read either as short consecutive sentences, ‘They were sons of Wihtgyls; his father [lit. that’s father was called Witta; his father was called Wihta; and this Wihta’s father was named Woden’; or ‘They were sons of Wihtgyls whose father was called Witta, whose father was called Wihta, and whose (Wihta’s) father was named Woden.’ Bæda’s Latin has cujus in all three places, so that the translator apparently used þǽs as a relative. See also Wülfing, Syntax Alfreds des Grossen, I. § 275. Now, and for a long time past, the relative that has been stressless, and consequently with obscure vowel; but this unstressing and obscuration came gradually, and was never represented in writing, so that in the written forms there is nothing to distinguish the relative from the demonstrative.]
A. Examples of early inflexional forms.
(The inflexional forms were, to begin with, those of the dem. pron. and definite article (see prec. and THE); but, as relative, that is now invariable for gender, case, and number.)
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter, ix. 12. Singað dryhtne se [L. qui] eardað in Sion. Ibid., 28. Ðes [cujus] muð awerʓednisse & bitternisse ful is. Ibid., cxxxii. 3. Swe swe deaw … se astiʓeð in munt Sion.
c. 825. Vesp. Hymns, xiii. 4. ʓehiowadas mon ðæm [cui] ðinre onlicnisse ondwliotan saldes ʓelicne.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., I. i. § 1. Oceanus…, þone man garsecg hateð. Ibid., § 11. Rin þa ea, seo wilð of þæm beorʓe þe mon Alpis hætt. Ibid. Donua þa ea, þære æwielme is neah Rines ofre. Ibid., II. vii. § 2. An burʓ in Affrica sio [quæ] wæs neh þæm sæ.
a. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., I. xii. [xv.] (1890), 52. Wihta … þæs … fæder wæs Woden nemned.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xxiv. 15. Unfeʓernis slitnese ðiu [Rushw. þe] ʓecueden wæs from ðæm witgo.
c. 1100. O. E. Chron., an. 1093. Anselme … se wæs ær abbod on Bæc.
B. Signification.
The general relative pronoun, referring to any antecedent, and used without inflexion irrespective of gender, number, and case.
I. 1. Introducing a clause defining or restricting the antecedent, and thus completing its sense. (The ordinary use: referring to persons or things.)
Sometimes replaceable by who (of persons) or which (of things), but properly only in cases where no ambiguity results: cf. 2, and see WHO, WHICH, rel. (For ellipsis of that, see 10.)
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter, vii. 7. In bebode ðæt ðu bibude.
858. Charter, in O. E. Texts, 438. Ðes landes boec … ðet eðelbearht cyning wullafe sealde.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., v. § 1. Ne sece ic no her þa bec ac þæt ðæt þa bec forstent.
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. (Th.), lxxxviii. 41. [lxxxix. 48]. Hwylc manna is þæt his aʓene … sawle ʓeneriʓe?
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 3. God [? goð] in þane castel þet is onȝein eou. Ibid., 79. Þes Mon þhet alihte from ierusalem in to ierico.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 162. Þeo þet duden mid God al þet heo euer wolden.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 22118. All þat he cristen finds þare.
1340. Ayenb., 39. Þe ualse yulemde þet vlyeþ.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., IV. pr. vii. 113 (Camb. MS.). Þou þat art put in the encres or in the heyhte of vertu.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. X. 38. Þo þat feynen hem folis.
1382. Wyclif, Matt. iv. 16. The peple that dwelte in derknessis say grete liȝt.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 244. It that was wont to be callit law.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., ix. (1885), 130. The kyng off Scottis þat last dyed.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xx. 8. He rewlis weill, that weill him self can gyd.
1526. Tindale, John iv. 26. I thatt spake unto the, am he.
1531. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), VI. 24. A distres that I toke of hyr.
1596. Danett, trans. Comines (1614), 173. But this was not it that grieued them.
1611. Bible, Ps. lxv. 2. O thou that hearest prayer.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 512, ¶ 6. A Tree that grew near an old Wall.
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., II. v. We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea.
1865. Swinburne, Atalanta, 76. How shall I say, son, That am no sister?
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 342. This is about all that he has to say.
1886. C. E. Pascoe, Lond. of To-day, xxx. (ed. 3), 269. The Westminster Hall that we now see … is the building of Richard II’s time.
b. As obj. of a preposition, which in this case stands at the end of the relative clause (in OE. and ME. sometimes immediately before the verb): e.g., the cup that I shall drink of = the cup of which I shall drink; ME. these that I have of told = these of which I have told.
(When whom or which is substituted for that, the prep. precedes the relative.)
c. 1200. Ormin, 462. Þiss gode prest, Þatt we nu mælenn offe, Wass … ȝehatenn Zacaryas.
a. 1300. Seven Sins, 44, in E. E. P. (1862), 19. Þe deuil is his executur of is gold and is tresure Þat he so moch trist to.
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), ii. 10. The naylles that crist was naylled with on the cros.
c. 1430. Hymns Virg., 37/69. Theise .iij. þat y haue of toold.
1473. Coventry Leet-Bk., 383. The which letter … is in kepyng in the Tour of Sent Marie hall in the same box þat the kynges generall pardon graunted to this Citee is Ine.
1526. Tindale, Matt. xx. 22. Are ye able to drynke off the cuppe that y shall drinke of, and to be baptised with the baptism that y shalbe baptised with?
1611. Bible, Judges xx. 48. All the cities that they came to.
1678. Bunyan, Pilgr., I. 49. The dangers that Mistrust and Timorus were driven back by.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxix [xxx]. The ship that somebody was sailing in.
1841. S. Warren, Ten thousand a-Year, xiv. There’s nothing … that we need be afraid of.
Mod. The play that you were talking about. The hole that the mouse ran into. The town that he came from.
2. Introducing a clause stating something additional about the antecedent (the sense of the principal clause being complete without the relative clause). Now only poet. or rhet., the ordinary equivalents being who (obj. whom) of persons, and which of things.
But the relative clause is often merely descriptive, stating an attribute of the antecedent; or it may give the reason or a reason of the main statement, and thus be closely connected with it; the use in these cases approaches that in 1. There are thus many cases in which modern use allows either that or who, which, and in which poets prefer that. (That as in quot. c. 1450 is now impossible.)
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., I. i. § 7. On Indea londe is xliiii þeoda buton þæm iʓlande Taprabane, þæt hæfð on him x byrʓ.
a. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., I. i. (1890), 24. Breoton ist garsecges ealond, ðæt wæs iu ʓeara Albion haten.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. vi. 30. Æcyres weod, þæt ðe [Rushw. þæt] to dæʓ is & bið to morʓen on ofen asend.
a. 1240. Ureisun, in Lamb. Hom., 185. Ha haueþ oþer wilneþ after cunfort on eorþe, þet is fikel and fals.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 9406. He wroght a felau of his ban Till Adam, þat was first allan [v.r. his an].
c. 1320. Cast. Love, 8–9. God ffader and Sone and Holigost, Þat alle þing on eorþe sixt and wost, Þat O God art and þrilli-hod.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 10. Smale foweles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open eye.
c. 1450. Godstow Reg., 501. Yf hit happen the said priour and Covent … to faile in the payment of þe seid yerely rente (that god for-bede).
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xxiv. 515. Reynaude, that sawe this harde batayll, shoved himselfe among the thickest.
1548–9. (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Litany. O God mercyfull father, that despysest not the sighinge of a contryte hearte.
1621. Bp. Mountagu, Diatribæ, 16. You are a merry man … that tell me, your selfe, you are not within.
1678. Gunpowder Treason, in Select. Harl. Misc. (1793), 252. Catesby … thereupon engaged Sir Everard Digby, that promised to advance fifteen hundred pounds towards it; and Mr. Francis Tresham, that gave him assurance of two thousand pounds.
1824. Lamb, Lett. to W. Marten, 19 July (in Sotheby’s Catal., 5 June (1902), 66). Pity me that have been a Gentleman these four weeks and am reduced in one day to the state of a ready writer.
1843. Macaulay, Lays Anc. Rome, Horatius. False Sextus That wrought the deed of shame.
1885–94. R. Bridges, Eros & Psyche, May, 4. Lazy mists, that still Climb’d on the shadowy roots of every hill.
3. As subj. or obj. of the rel. clause, with ellipsis of the antecedent.
a. Of things: thăt = (the thing) that, that which, what. Very common down to 16th c.; now arch. and poetic, what being the prose form.
In later use the single that may become emphatic, and is then demonstrative with ellipsis of the relative: see THAT dem. pron. 7.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xxvi. § 1. Þonne ðu … oððe hæfdest þæt ðu noldes oððe næfdest þæt ðu woldest.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 5. Nu scule ȝe understonden þet hit bi-tacnet.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 3066. Ðat [h]ail ða bileaf sal al ben numen.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3711. He ete and dranc þat was his will.
c. 1315. Shoreham, VI. 11. Þou hast y-ryȝt þat was amys, Ywonne þat was y-lore.
c. 1400. Laud Troy Bk., 7877. Antenor did that In him was.
1477–9. Rec. St. Mary at Hill, 91. Paid to hewe Clerk that he lackyd in his wagis.
1535. Coverdale, Matt. xx. 14. Take that thine is [Wyclif, that that is thine] and go thy waye.
a. 1568. Ascham, Scholem., I. (Arb.), 49. Where they should neither see that was vncumlie nor heare that was vnhonest.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 77. I earne that I eate: get that I weare.
1611. Bible, Job xlii. 3. Therefore haue I vttered that I vnderstood not.
1887. Morris, Odyss., XII. 301. In peace eat that ye have.
b. Of persons: thăt = (the person) that, he (or him) that, one that; pl. (persons) that, they (them), or those who. Now only after there are and the like: see THERE adv. 5 f.
c. 1320. Cast. Love, 1. Þat good þenkeþ good may do.
a. 1400[?]. Arthur, 1. Herkeneþ, þat loueþ honour.
1400. 26 Pol. Poems, i. 122. That taken with wrong, are goddis theues.
14[?]. Why I can’t be a Nun, 244, in E. E. P. (1862), 144. Dame chastyte … sum her loved in hert fulle dere, And there weren that dyd not so.
1560. Bible (Genev.), Prov. xi. 24. There is that scatereth, and is more increased.
c. 1585. R. Browne, Answ. Cartwright, 79. There were of the princes that tooke his parte.
1605. Shaks., Lear, I. iv. 279. Woe [sc. to him] that too late repents.
1611. Bible, Exod. iii. 14. I am that I am.
a. 1665. Digby, Priv. Mem. (1827), 272. Of her ancestors there have been that have exalted and pulled down kings.
II. In various special or elliptical constructions, in some of which that passes into a relative or conjunctive adverb. (Cf. next word.)
4. After same: sometimes strictly the rel. pron. (1); sometimes with looser construction or ellipsis: = as: see SAME A. 1 a, and cf. AS B. 23.
c. 1200, etc. [see SAME A. 1 a].
a. 1575. trans. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camden, No. 29), 181. William made the same awnswer that befor.
1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, I. xxx. 200. The mare-mule is subiect to the same diseases that the horse.
1664. H. More, Exp. 7 Epist., viii. 124. I understand by φιλαδελφία the same that ἀγάπη, universal Love.
1690. W. Walker, Idiomat. Anglo-Lat., 387. They say Diana is the same that the Moon is.
1771. Luckombe, Hist. Print., 404. He grasps his left hand about the Foot end of the Page in the same posture that his right hand grasps the Head end.
1783. Colman, Prose on Sev. Occas., Notes Art Poetry (1787), III. 97. Other criticks have taken the text … in the same sense that I have here considered it.
1819. Hazlitt, Pol. Ess., 421. If Mr. Malthus chooses to say, that men will always be governed by the same good mechanical motives that they are at present.
5. Preceded by a descriptive noun or adj., in a parenthetic exclamatory clause (e.g., fool that he is): = AS B. 25.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, III. 1516 (1565). Nece, how kan ye fare? Criseyde answerede, Neuere þe bet for yow, Fox þat ye ben.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxx. 26. Lo! sirs, my worthely wiffe, þat sche is!
1526. Tindale, Rom. vii. 24. O wretched man that I am.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., V. iv. 28. O miserable, vnhappy that I am.
1605. R. R., in Sylvester’s Wks. (1880), I. 15/1. Foole that I was, I thought in younger times [etc.].
1855. Browning, Popularity, 1. Stand still, true poet that you are! I know you.
1877. E. W. Gosse, North. Stud., 4 Danish Poets (1890), 227. A few months after Andersen—poor little forlorn adventurer that he was—left that city.
6. † a. = AS B. 13. Obs. rare–1.
c. 1175. Credo, in Lamb. Hom., 75. Alle ȝe kunnen leste, þet ich wene, ower credo.
b. In not that I know, and similar expressions: = According to what, as far as. Cf. KNOW v. 18 c.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xxi. 239. No word yit he spake That I wyst.
1530. Palsgr., 762/1. I never trespassed agaynst hym, that I wotte of.
1602. Shaks., Ham., II. ii. 155. Pol. Hath there bene such a time … That I haue possitiuely said, ’tis so, When it prou’d otherwise? King. Not that I know.
1776. Trial of Nundocomar, 30/1. I was not at Mongheer; nor was he there, that I know of.
1819. Shelley, Cenci, I. iii. Can we do nothing? Colon. Nothing that I see.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes, iv. (1872), 126. But Protestantism has not died yet, that I hear of!
1864. Dasent, Jest & Earnest (1873), II. 343. He had never seen Hall that he knew before that day.
1886. Sir N. Lindley, in Law Rep., 31 Chanc. Div. 367. An injunction to restrain such proceedings has never that I know of been granted since 1851.
Mod. He is not here, that I can learn. No one knows anything about it, that I can find.
7. After the word time, or any sb. meaning a point or space of time: At, in, or on which; when.
Usually introducing a defining clause, as in 1: sometimes an additional statement, as in 2. For ellipsis of that, see 10.
Beowulf, 2646. Nu is se dæʓ cumen þæt ure man-dryhten mæʓenes be-hofað.
a. 1000. Cædmon’s Gen., 585 (Gr.). Wæs seo hwil þæs lang, þæt ic ʓeornlice gode þeʓnode.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Num. xiii. 21. Hit wæs ða se tima þæt winberian ripodon.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 862. Fro þe fryday þat he deyde, To tyme þat he ros.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Reeve’s T., 189. Allas quod Iohn the day that I was born.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, VI. xvi. 209. Thyne houre is come that thou muste dye.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. 53. In the meane tyme that our supper was a dressyng, this knight said to me [etc.].
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 187. I was neuer so berim’d since Pythagoras time that I was an Irish Rat.
1611. Bible, Gen. ii. 17. In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), IV. 31. You speak … like a sage … at an age that our young nobility scarcely begin to think.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T., xii. The night that he went to the play.
1879. Geo. Eliot, Theo. Such, i. 10. One day that I had incautiously mentioned this interesting fact.
† b. = To the time that; till, until. Obs.
971. Blickl. Hom., 237. Nu þry daʓas to lafe syndon þæt hie þe willaþ acwellan.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 33. Þah þu liuedest of adames frumðe þet come þes dei.
c. 1205. Lay., 229. Þis lond he hire lende Þat come hir lifes ende.
c. 1320. Cast. Love, 1412. From þe tyme þat he Adam wrouȝte, Þat he vp-ros and vs for-bouȝte.
† c. = From the time that; since. Obs. rare–1.
c. 1205. Lay., 26294. Hit is feole ȝere Þat heore þrættes comen here.
8. Connecting two clauses loosely or anacoluthically, the relative or dependent clause being imperfect (the part omitted being suggested by the principal clause); giving the effect of the ordinary rel. pron. with ellipsis of a preposition, an infinitive, etc.: cf. 7. (Now considered slipshod.)
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., IV. xxv. 2380. Off þe nycht next gane beforn Þat Iulyus was slayn on þe morn.
c. 1530. Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt., 494. Oftentimes people speketh of a thing that they knowe but lytle what the conclusyon shall be.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., II. vi. 9. Who riseth from a feast With that keene appetite that he sits downe?
1673. Essex Papers (Camden), I. 51. Who put this Citty into that disorder that I found it.
1779. Mirror, No. 29, ¶ 4. His fortune and his ancestry entitled him … to appear in any shape that he pleased.
1875. Dasent, Vikings, I. 146. If you will only see things … in the light that we see them.
9. That followed by a poss. pron. corresponding to the antecedent (e.g., you that your, the man that his, OE. þe his, THE particle 3 d) is an ancient mode of expressing the genitive of the relative = whose.
(The same idiom is used in many langs., e.g., Celtic, Semitic, etc.). Still common dialectally.
1456. Sc. Acts Jas. II. (1814), II. 45/2. Item, it is ordanyt … at ilk man þt his gudis extendis to xxtj merckis be bodyn at þe lest wt … a suerdo and a buclare, a bow and a schaif of arrowis.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, VIII. xxxv. 327. There came a man that sire Tristram afore hand had slayne his broder.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 148. That man that thy horse hath eten his corne or grasse wyll be greued at the.
1602. Ld. Cromwell, I. ii. Theres legions now of beggars … That their originall did spring from Kings.
[1873. Murray, Dial. S. Scotl., 196. When the Relative is used in the Possessive Case (whose) it is necessary to express it by … at (that) and the possessive pronoun belonging to the antecedent; thus ‘the man ăt hys weyfe’s deid’ … ‘the wumman ăt ye ken hyr sun.’]
¶ 10. The relative is very frequently omitted by ellipsis, esp. in senses 1, 1 b (chiefly as obj. or pred., less freq. and now only in certain connections as subj.); also in sense 7.
This (one of the commonest idioms in colloquial English, and largely found in the literary language) prob. began with the relative þe, THE. Cf. also THAT conj. 10.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 297. Adam ben king and eue quuen Of alle ðe ðinge in werlde ben. Ibid., 751. Ilc ðing deieð ðor-inne is driuen.
13[?]. Cursor M., 4892. Yon er theues … And theif es he þam hider send.
a. 1450. Le Morte Arth., 72. I drede we shall discouerid be, Off the loue is vs by-twene.
1578. Timme, Caluine on Gen., 164. When those things should follow are set before.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. i. 212. I do loue a woman … and shee’s faire I loue.
1611. Bible, Gen. iii. 5. In the day ye eate thereof, then your eyes shalbee opened.
1676. Glanvill, Ess., Pref. a 3 b. It shews a particular service Philosophy doth.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxi. § 32. Life it self … is a burden cannot be born under the lasting … pressure of such an uneasiness.
1781. Cowper, Verses Alex. Selkirk, i. I am monarch of all I survey.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., iv. What is it makes me beat so low? Ibid., v. To put in words the grief I feel.
1851. Longf., Golden Leg., ii. 273. Who was it said Amen?
1855. Browning, Misconceptions, i. This is a spray the Bird clung to.
