thoo

English

Etymology 1

Preposition

thoo (nonstandard)

1. Pronunciation spelling of through, representing African-American Vernacular English.
   • 1885, William Lightfoot Visscher, Black Mammy: A Song of the Sunny South in Three Cantos; and My Village Home‎, page 35:

     Up thoo de lawn an' 'twixt de trees, jes' like a spring-time rivah breeze, dat youngster comes a-troopin' - I think he had de boldes' step a tired infant evah kep', an' nary bit er droopin'.

   • 2006, Erik Redling, Speaking of Dialect: Translating Charles W. Chesnutt's Conjure Tales Into Postmodern Systems of Signification‎, page 79:

     "I ain' nervous;" he says to John and Annie, "but dat saw, a-cuttin' en grindin' thoo dat stick er timber, en moanin', en groanin', en sweekin' kyars my 'memb'ance back ter ole times, en 'min's me er po' Sandy" (Chesnutt, Conjure 45-46).

   • 2021 July 10, Judith Ann McDowell, Fated Memories‎:

     "We's gwing ter get thoo dis jes fine. De lawd woan gives you mo' dan you kin tek. Jes trust in him, chile, an eve'thing bes awright."

Usage notes

• Historically also used in white Southern US speech but now rare there.

Etymology 2

Pronoun

thoo

1. (Orkney) Thou; singular informal form of you.

Usage notes

• Historically also used north of the Humber-Lune line in (Northern) England, but now rare there.

Anagrams

• Hoot, Htoo, OTOH, hoot, otoh, toho

Fingallian

Etymology

From Middle English þeou, þeu, þou, from Old English þū,from Proto-West Germanic *þū, from Proto-Germanic *þū (“you (singular), thou”), from Proto-Indo-European *túh₂ (“you, thou”).

Pronoun

thoo

1. thou

Scots

Pronoun

thoo (objective case thee, vocative thee, possessive determiner thee)

1. Orkney form of thou

   Thoo kens whit hid's like wi a hooseful o folk

   You know what it's like with a houseful of folks

Usage notes

• thoo is used to address a friend, a family member or someone younger.

Further reading

• Flaws, Margaret; Lamb, Gregor (1996), The Orkney Dictionary, Kirkwall, Orkney: Orkney Language and Culture Group, published 2001, →ISBN