dem. pron. and a., dial. [app. a comparatively recent alteration of yon, the initial consonant being assimilated to this and that. (A suggestion that it arose from misreading the written y the compendious form of th, as in ye, yis, yat, yem, yairof, etc., is, in view of the wide popular diffusion of thon and thonder, inadequate.)] = YON: the demonstrative pron. and adj., pointing to something more remote in place or time than that: = L. ille, Sp. aquello.
Used in Scotland, Ulster, and the four northern English counties. Written examples not found before 1800; app. not in Ramsay nor in Burns.
1804. Tarras, Poems, 96 (Jam.). Leuk down the gate, what squabble’s thon, That ca’s the thrang’s attention?
1808. Jamieson, Sc. Dict., Thone, yonder, yon.
1818. Miss Ferrier, Marriage, I. ii. 18. ‘Hoose!’ repeated the driver, ‘ca’ ye thon a hoose? Thon’s gude Glenfern Castle.’
1886. R. L. Stevenson, Lett. (1901), II. viii. 39. Strange conduc’ o’ thon man Rankeillor. Ibid. (1893), Catriona, 136. I’ll no forget thon of the cinnamon water.
1894. Heslop, Northumbld. Gloss., 727. Whe’s thon? Whe’s thon chep? De ye see thon hoose ower there?
[1904. in Eng. Dial. Dict. from Scotland (Aberdeen to Roxb.), Ulster, Northumberland, Durham.]
So Thonder adv. and a. dial. (also thaander, thander, thender, thinder) = YONDER.
Used in Scotland, Ulster, England from north border to Hereford, Leicester, E. Anglia.
a. 1825. Forby, Vocab. E. Anglia, Thinder, adv., v. Yinder.
c. 1847. [Common in Roxburghsh.] Thonder adv.
18[?]. Robson, Bards of Tyne (1863), 441. Then at last, aw heard her say, O! thonder is the Gardens.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., s.v. He lives over thender.
1876. Bound, Provinc. Herefordsh. (E.D.D.). Thander one is the man.
1879. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., Introd. 50. Yander, thander, adj.
1887. Darlington, Folk-sp. S. Cheshire, 70. Yonder has the forms yondur, yaandur, and dhondur.
1899. Blackw. Mag., Feb., 168, (Sc.) I didna mak verra muckle o’ the fairming up-bye thonder.
