What does thy and thou mean

Interestingly, the Quakers reintroduced thee but also used it in the nominative. Sarahndipity Sarahndipity 27 1 1 bronze badge. Thee is the object case. Dost thou want tea, Elaine? I will get thee a cup. Do ye want tea, Mrs. I will get you a cup. I can't answer for the alleged distinction in modern Yorkshire dialect, but in historic usage 'thou' is subject and 'thee' is object, with no difference in formality. And th'all they-all this time knew a brogue was a shoe.

Paulustrious Paulustrious 3 3 bronze badges. From that example, "th'ard" looks like it corresponds to standard archaic English "thou had" or "thou hadst" the first would be what is commonly called " past subjunctive "; I'm not sure if its use would be standard in this context — herisson.

I've now learnt that I must italicise. It's good to know I am still alive whilst living in the Dark Ages. Another odd thing is the "-st" ending. It was mainly applied to modal verbs like "wouldst' and "couldst". My spell-checker thinks they are OK. Thanks for the edit - and for the gentlest of nudges. Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile. Linked 2. Related 0. Hot Network Questions. Question feed. However, this pronoun did not disappear, as it also functioned as an indicator of familiarity or intimacy, and retained its function as a singular form of address for God in many cases in ecclesiastical writings.

This is where the violence comes into our story. When this portion of our language began to shift there was a belief among many Quakers that the use of the singular you was inappropriate, on the grounds that it violated grammatical tenets, and enforced unwanted social distinctions. One of the founders of the Quakers, George Fox, felt strongly enough about this matter that he wrote an entire book on the subject which was a bit longer than one might imagine it would be, taking up over pages , published in For Thou and Thee was a sore cut to proud flesh, and them that sought self-honour, who, though they would say it to God and Christ, would not endure to have it said to themselves.

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Log in Sign Up. Beating people is not a good way to enact grammatical change.

You — Thou You — Thee. You — Ye You — You. Just like with modern English pronouns, the more you or rather, thou practice with the words and use them in your sentences, the easier it will be to write fluently with them. Like Liked by 1 person. You made a gooooood jobbbb… thanx…. Like Like. Like Liked by 3 people. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. Definition of Old English. Romeo Montague is the son of Lord and Lady Montague. Capulet is a powerful nobleman of Verona and the head of the Capulet family.

He is Juliet's father. Shakespeare's Writing Style.