What is the meaning of "thou thee" from the quotation below referenced in this Quora answer? (Attributed to the attorney-general at Sir Walter Raleigh’s trial.) All that he did was at thy instigation, thou viper; for I thou thee, thou traitor. Answer In “I thou thee”, “thou” is a verb. The relevant definition in the … Read more
I am reading Hemingway’s “For Whom The Bell Tolls” (an edition from 1960). Throughout the book, strong words and obscenities are replaced literally by the term “obscenity” or similar. For example (emphasis added): “My transmission is smashed,” the driver, who was bent over by the rear of his truck, said. “Obscene your transmission. Go ahead, … Read more
The commonly used version of this Christian prayer comes from the King James Bible 9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 … Read more
There’s a lot of good information in the answer to an existing question about thou/you and thee/ye, and many are familiar with how shops with the affectation of “Ye Olde Shoppe” get that “Y” from a corruption of the letter þ. This might be nothing more than a coincidence, but is there any connection between … Read more
Does English use the word thou in situations nowadays? For example, to humiliate an opponent by being overly familiar? Answer The Only thing I can think of is if a suitor were being extremely formal in a proposal of marriage: Wouldst thou do me the honor…. It might also be used in a light teasing … Read more
Is it technically incorrect grammar to make a hybrid of the well known statements: “Thou shalt not pass” and “You shall not pass”––this hybrid being: “You shalt not pass”? From what I understand from not 100% trustworthy sources (Wikipedia), “Thou shalt not” is used by the KJV (Ten Commandments, etc.) and is Shakespearean English, whereas … Read more
Would native English speakers feel offended if I address them by “thou” instead of “you”? Answer I can’t see any reason why they would be. They would more likely be confused and find it rather odd considering how archaic “thou” is. AttributionSource : Link , Question Author : Ilya Boltnev , Answer Author : Dog … Read more
Why is this sentence using ‘thee’ (which is, afaik the oblique case) and not ‘thou’? The second person singular -in this case- should be the subject, i thought. The subject is the one doing the action, so i’d intuitively use the nominative case ‘thou’, but instead here the second person singular seems to be the … Read more
If I want to be posh, old school, when I’m writing, and decide to use “thee” then what is the correct technical usage for it? Does it simply replace “the” ? Answer To amplify what @Noah said: Thee and thou are the second-person singular pronouns in English. They have fallen into almost complete disuse, as … Read more
From the top of my head, Danish “De” (practically never used), German “Sie“, Chinese “您“, French “vous“, Spanish “usted” are a formal way of addressing someone, especially if one isn’t familiar with the addressee. Did English ever have this? It sounds as though Proto-Indo-European might have had this (based on my 4 examples), but perhaps … Read more
