Thou pers. pron.

2nd sing. nom. Forms: 1–3 ðu, 1–5 þu, (2–3 tu, tou, -te), 3 (þe, þeou), ðhu, 3–5 þou, 3–6 thu, (4 þouȝ), 4–5 þow, (-tow), 4–6 thow, 4, 6 (9 dial.) th-, th’, (5 thowe), 4– thou. (Mod. dial. thau, thaw, thah, tha; theau, theow, thoo, thu; tau, taw, ta, tay; teau, teaw, teu, too, tou, tow; doo, dou, du, etc.: see Eng. Dial. Dict.) [OE. ðū, þū; Com. Teut. and Indo-Eur.; OFris. thū (du), OS. thū (MDu., MLG., LG. du), OHG. dū (MHG., Ger. du), ON. þú (Norw., Sw., Da. du), Goth. þu :—OTeut. þū = pre-Teut. tū: = L. tu, Ir. tu, Welsh ti, Gr. σύ, Doric τύ, Lith. tu, OSlav. ty, Skr. twa-m. The oblique cases, and the possessive, are formed on a stem þe- = pre-Teut. te-: see THEE, THINE. The pl. YE, in OE. ʓé, is from a different root, to which also belonged a dual ʓit, YIT, ‘ye two,’ still used after 1200 in ME. The acc. and dat. sing. were leveled in OE. under the dat. form: see THEE. The OE. genitive was identical in form with a possessive adj. þín: see THINE, THY. The paradigm of thou is therefore as follows:

  1.  The pronoun by which a person (or thing) is addressed, in the nominative singular; the pronoun denoting the person (or thing) spoken to.

  Thou and its cases thee, thine, thy, were in OE. used in ordinary speech; in ME. they were gradually superseded by the plural ye, you, your, yours, in addressing a superior and (later) an equal, but were long retained in addressing an inferior. Loog retained by Quakers in addressing a single person, though now less general; still in various dialects used by parents to children, and familiarly between equals, esp. intimates; in other cases considered as rude. In general English used in addressing God or Christ, also in homiletic language, and in poetry, apostrophe, and elevated prose. For details of dialect use, see Wright, Eng. Dial. Dict., Thou II. Eng. Dial. Gram., § 404.

  In ME. freq. combined with its verb when this precedes, the þ being then absorbed in the preceding t, as artow = art thou, hastow = hast thou. The initial þ also became t after s, t, or d, as hauis tu = hast thou, þat tu, and tu: see T 8.

Beowulf, 507. Eart þu se Beowulf?

c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter, ix. 15. Ðu uphest mec of ʓeatum deaðes.

c. 1205.  Lay., 690. Niðing þou ært al dead … Bote þu min lare do. Ibid., 2978. Þeou [c. 1275 þou] ært leouere þene mi lif.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 240. Þench ec hwat tu owust God, uor his god deden.

a. 1240.  Ureisun, in Cott. Hom., 199. So þu dest and so þu schalt.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 361. For ðhu min bode-word haues broken, ðhu salt ben ut in sorȝe luken, In swinc ðu salt tilien ði mete.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 6371. Þou ne ssalt of þin liflode neuere carie noȝt.

c. 1300.  Cursor M., 19585 (Edin.). Hauis tu [v.rr. þu, þou] na parte … here. Ibid., 1253 (Gött.). In þat way sal yu [Cott. þou] find forsoth Þi moþer. Ibid., 8306 (Fairf.). Werrour artow [Cott. art þow] gode in fiȝt.

c. 1391.  Chaucer, Astrol., I. § 13. Thanne hastow a brod Rewle.

c. 1440.  Pallad. on Husb., I. 42. The better may thowe with that water holde.

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. lxiv. [lxv.] 1. Thou, O God, art praysed in Sion.

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. v. 9. Good thou, saue mee a piece of Marchpane. Ibid. (1597), 2 Hen. IV., II. ii. 17. How many paire of Silk stockings y^u haste.

1671.  H. M., trans. Erasm. Colloq., 326. Why shouldest thou do so, seeing how thou was not far from thine own shore?

1715–20.  Pope, Iliad, XII. 69. Oh thou! bold leader of the Trojan bands, And you, confederate chiefs from foreign lands!

1741.  Richardson, Pamela, II. 273. I dare say thou’lt set the good work forward.

a. 1835.  Mrs. Hemans, Graves of Househ., viii. Alas, for love! if thou wert all, And nought beyond, O Earth.

1872.  Tennyson, Gareth & Lyn., 1210. Thou—Lancelot!—thine the hand That threw me?

  Dialectal.  1579.  Spenser, Sheph. Cal., July, 33. Syker, thous but a laesie loord.

1607.  Beaumont, Woman Hater, III. i. Heres ta, and tha [Hearest thou, if thou] wants lodging, take my house, ’tis big enough.

1802.  R. Anderson, Cumberld. Ball., Sally Gray, iv. Had tou seen her at kurk, man, last Sunday, Tou couldn’t ha’e thought o’ the text.

1861.  E. Waugh, Birtle Carter’s T., 32. Weil neaw, mind ta does do.

1876.  Whitby Gloss., 171/2. If thoo will gan, sithence be ’t.

1886.  Hall Caine, Son of Hagar, I. i. What sayst tha, Reuben?

  b.  Used in apposition to and preceding a sb. in the vocative: in reproach or contempt often emphasized by being placed or repeated after the sb.

c. 888.  K. Ælfred, Boeth., xxvii. § 2. Ic asciʓe ðe, þu Boetius.

13[?].  Cursor M., 13632 (Gött.). ‘Hald ȝe to him,’ said þai, ‘þu caitiue.’

c. 1350.  Will. Palerne, 312. A! gracious gode god! þouȝ grettest of alle!

c. 1425.  ? Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 1394. ‘What’ seyde Ryghtwysnes, ‘thow olde dotyng foole.’

c. 1485.  Digby Myst., III. 1399. Loke þat we have drynke, boy þou.

1590.  Shaks., Mids. N., V. i. 177. Thow wall, o wall, o sweet and louely wall. Ibid. (1601), Jul. C., IV. iii. 301. Sleepe againe Lucius: Sirra Claudio, Fellow, Thou: Awake. Ibid. (1610), Temp., III. ii. 52. Thou lyest, thou iesting Monkey thou.

1756.  Home, Douglas, III. ii. Thou riddler, speak Direct and clear.

1820.  Wordsw., Ch. San Salvador, 1. Thou sacred Pile! whose turrets rise … Guarded by lone San Salvador.

1850.  (Westmorland), Get oop, thoo lile ligabed!

  2.  As sb. a. The person or ‘self’ of the individual addressed. Cf. THEE pron. 4 a.

1693.  Dryden, Persius’ Sat., i. 249. Thou, if there be a Thou, in this base Town, Who dares, with angry Eupolis, to frown.

1831.  Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. ix. Because the Thou (sweet gentleman) is not sufficiently honoured, nourished, soft-bedded.

  b.  The word itself: see also THEE pron. 4 b.

1655.  Baxter, Quaker Catech., 27. The Quakers … call out for a formal Righteousnesse…, consisting in such things as these following, to wit … That we say (Thou) and no (You) to him we speak to.

1694.  Penn, in G. Fox’s Jrnl. (1827), I. Pref. 15. They also used the plain language of Thou and Thee to a single person.

1827.  Hare, Guesses (1859), 119. When you came into use among the higher classes, the lower were still addrest with thou.

1905.  Daily Chron., 16 Feb., 5/1. Among the concessions … is that the men shall be addressed in the second person plural, not as is usual throughout Russia, in the case of the working classes, in the singular ‘thou’ (a mark of inferiority).