Thous vs Thons - What's the difference?
thous | thons |
(thou)
To address (a person) using the pronoun thou, especially as an expression of familiarity or contempt.
* 1888 , Rudyard Kipling, ‘On the City Wall’, In Black and White , Folio Society 2005, p. 443:
To use the word thou.
(slang) A thousand, especially a thousand dollars, a thousand pounds sterling, etc.
(neologism, archaic) Belonging to thon, their (singular).
* {{quote-journal, year = 1889
, month = November
, title = That Desired Impersonal Pronoun
, journal = The Writer
, first = C. Crozat
, last = Converse
, publisher = William H. Hills
, city = Boston
, volume = 3
, issue = 2
, page = 248
, url = http://books.google.com/books?id=QQQ-AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA248
, passage = Every writer has "thons " verbal likes and dislikes, yet, for the sake of convenience, I trust that even "thon" who dislikes verbal innovations will give my little word a little trial and note for me the result.
}}
* {{quote-journal, year = 1895
, month = July
, title = The New Pronoun
, journal = The Public-School Journal
, publisher = Public-School Publishing Co.
, city = Bloomington
, volume = 14
, issue = 11
, page = 613
, quotee = The Lynchburg Record
, url = http://books.google.com/books?id=3fkBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA613
, passage = I hope that each student will have learned thons algebra lesson perfectly this morning.
}}
* {{quote-book, year = 1895
, title = Outlines of Psychology
, first = Henry Graham
, last = Williams
, publisher = C. W. Bardee
, location = Syracuse
, edition = 3rd
, page = 5
, url = http://books.google.com/books?id=_BEAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA5
, passage = Every student should acquaint thonself with some method by which thon can positively correlate the facts of thons knowledge.
}}
As a verb thous
is third-person singular of thou.As an adjective thons is
belonging to thon, their singular. Gender-neutral third-person singular possessive adjective, coordinate with {{term|his and {{term|her}}.}.thous
English
Verb
(head)Anagrams
* *thou
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) thou, thow, thu, ).Alternative forms
* (l), (l), (l), (l)Usage notes
* , as in, for example, “Lovest thou me?” Irregular forms include: (art) (of be), (hast) (of have), shalt (of shall), wost (of (wit)), wilt (of (will)), and (m) (of (m)).Derived terms
* th'art * thou'lt * thou'rt * thou'stSee also
(English personal pronouns)Verb
(en verb)- "One service more, Sahib , since thou hast come so opportunely," said Lalun. "Wilt thou" – it is very nice to be thou-ed by Lalun – "take this old man across the City [...] to the Kumharsen Gate?"
- I thou thee, thou traitor! (Edward Coke to Walter Raleigh)
- Avaunt, caitiff, dost thou thou me! I am come of good kin, I tell thee!'' (The morality play ''Hickscorner , ca. 1530)
- If thou thou'st him some thrice, it shall not be amiss''[...] (''Twelfth Night'' 3.2, Sir Toby Belch to Sir Andrew, egging him on to pick a fight with another, where one would expect one knight courteously to say to another, "If ''you thou him...").
- Don't thou''' them as '''thous thee! (Yorkshire English admonition to overly familiar children)
