thou

«thou» in Mova's school dictionary: an old word for «you» when speaking to one person, as the… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

pronoun (thou; thee, thy, thine — old forms)

meaning for a pupil

1) (old, Bible) Thou is an old word for «you» when speaking to one person, as the subject of a sentence: «Thou art» = «you are». tree →

2) (church) Thou is still used in old prayers and hymns to speak to God, as in the Lord's Prayer: «Our Father, which art in heaven». tree →

3) (informal) «Thou» can also be short for «a thousand», used by some adults about money. tree →

sense in the lessons

Pupils meet thou in the King James Bible, old hymns, Shakespeare, poems and fairy tales; it tells the reader that the language is old or holy. It goes with old verb forms ending in -st or -t: thou art, thou hast, thou shalt, thou dost. Phrases: «thou shalt not» (the Ten Commandments), «holier than thou» (someone who acts morally better than others).

examples

• «Thou shalt not steal,» says one of the Ten Commandments. tree →
• «Where art thou?» called the knight. tree →
• The old hymn says, «How great thou art.» tree →
• In Shakespeare's play, the girl says, «Thou art my friend.» tree →
• Stop being so holier-than-thou about it! tree →
• Thou, thee, thy and thine are old ways of saying you and your. tree →
• The car cost him twenty thou. (informal, money) tree →

note

Old forms: thou (subject, like «I»), thee (object, like «me»), thy (before a word, like «my»), thine (alone, like «mine»). Verbs change: thou art, thou hast, thou didst. In old English «thou» was actually the friendly or intimate form, not the polite one. Rhymes with «now». The money sense «thou» means a thousand.

In the corpora

• The sergeant speaks in old-fashioned words: «Oddsbodikins! … Rouse thee, old loon» (= Goodness!
• And the LORD God commanded the man, saying: 'Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat;
• And the LORD God called unto the man, and said unto him: 'Where art thou?'
• And He said: 'Who told thee that thou wast naked?
• Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?'

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «thou» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.