thay

See also: thảy, thây, thấy, thầy, and thẩy

English

Etymology 1

Article

thay

1. Pronunciation spelling of the.
   • 1861, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford‎^[1]:

     "The chaps as catches the big fishes, sir," went on the keeper, getting confidential, "is thay cussed night-line poachers."

Etymology 2

Verb

thay

1. Pronunciation spelling of say, to indicate a speaker with a speech impediment such as a lisp.
   • 1868, Sophie May, Dotty Dimple at Her Grandmother's‎^[2]:

     "Good girlth don't thay tho," said sweet little Charlie rather shocked.

   • 1903, Burt L. Standish, Frank Merriwell's Bravery‎^[3]:

     Do you mean to thay I am no gentleman, thir?

Etymology 3

Pronoun

thay

1. Obsolete spelling of they.
   • 1506, Alexander Barclay, The Ship of Fools, Volume 1‎^[4]:

     Yet fynde I another sort almoste as bad as thay.

   • 1566, John Knox, The Works of John Knox, Vol. 1 (of 6)‎^[5]:

     But potent is he against whome thei faught; for when thay wicked war in greatast securitie, then begane God to schaw his anger.

   • 1838, William Makepeace Thackeray, Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush‎^[6]:

     Law bless us! there was four of us on this stairkes, four as nice young men as you ever see: Mr. Bruffy's young man, Mr. Dawkinses, Mr. Blewitt's, and me--and we knew what our masters was about as well as thay did theirselfs.

Anagrams

• Athy

Middle English

Pronoun

thay

1. Alternative form of þei (“they”)

Scots

Etymology

Etymology tree

Middle English þai

Scots thay

From Middle English þai, borrowed in the 1200s from Old Norse þair, plural of the demonstrative sá which acted as a plural pronoun. Displaced native Middle English he from Old English hīe — which vowel changes had left indistinct from he (“he”) — by the 1400s, being readily incorporated alongside native words beginning with the same sound (the, that, this).

The Norse term (whence also Icelandic þeir (“they”), Faroese teir (“they”), Danish de (“they”), Swedish de (“they”), Norwegian Nynorsk dei (“they”)) is from Proto-Germanic *þai (“those”) (from Proto-Indo-European *to- (“that”)), whence also Old English þā (“those”) and English they.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ðeː, ðə, eː, deː/

Pronoun

thay

1. they (third-person pronoun, nominative case, usually plural, sometimes singular)

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [tʰaj˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [tʰaj˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [tʰa(ː)j˧˧]

Etymology 1

Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 替 (SV: thế).

Verb

thay • (𠊝, 𠳙, 𫢼, 台)

1. to change; to replace
2. to act in place of, to act on behalf of, to act for

   thay trời hành đạo ― to enforce the Way on behalf of Heaven

Derived terms

• đổi thay
• thay đổi
• thay mặt
• thay thế
• thay vì

Etymology 2

Adverb

thay • (𠼷, 咍, 台)

1. Used as a modifier to indicate surprise.
   • Diamond Sutra, Vietnamese translation by Thích Thanh Từ, English translation based on Burton Watson (2010) & A. Charles Muller (2013)

     Đức Phật bảo: "Lành thay, lành thay! Này Tu-bồ-đề, như lời ông nói, Như Lai khéo hộ niệm các vị Bồ-tát, khéo phó chúc các vị Bồ -tát, nay ông hãy lắng nghe cho kỹ, ta sẽ vì ông mà nói. Người thiện nam, thiện nữ phát tâm Vô thượng Chánh đẳng Chánh giác nên như thế mà trụ, như thế mà hàng phục tâm kia."

     The Buddha said, “How good! How good! Subhūti, it is as you have said. The Tathāgata is well mindful of all the bodhisattvas, and is skillful at instructing the bodhisattvas. Now you listen well, and [he] will explain it for you. If good sons and good daughters would like to arouse the mind of peerless perfect enlightenment, they should abide like this and subdue their thoughts like this.”

   • 2016, Trầm Hương, Trong cơn lốc xoáy, part I, NXB Phụ nữ, page 24:

     Kỳ lạ thay, sự lạnh lẽo của Luisa với đàn ông lại là nguồn năng lượng dồi dào làm tiệm nhuộm của cô khởi sắc.

     How strange: Luisa's aloofness towards men was an abundant source of energy making her dyeing shop thrive.

   Synonym: ơi

Yola

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ðeː/

Article

thay

1. Alternative form of a (“the”)
   • 1927, “YOLA ZONG O BARONY VORTH”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 132, line 5:

     "Faad thay goul ez upa thee, thou stouk" co Billeen,

     "What the divil is on you, you fool?" quoth Billy;

References

• Kathleen A. Browne (1927) The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth Series, Vol.17 No.2, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, page 132