they
Language: English
Part of speech: det
Pronunciation: enpr: thā
ipa: /ðeɪ/
ipa: /ðə/
rhymes: -eɪ
Forms: form: the
form: thay
form: thaay
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *tóy
Proto-Germanic *þai
Proto-Norse *ᚦᚨᛁᛉ (*þaiʀ)
Old Norse þeirbor.
Middle English þei
English they
From Middle English þei, borrowed in the 1200s from Old Norse þeir, 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). Used as a singular pronoun since 1300, e.g. in the 1325 Cursor Mundi.
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”) (whence obsolete English tho), Scots thae, thai, thay (“they; those”).
(American linguist John McWhorter rejects this and suggests that they, them, and their are native English instead, from Old English þā, þām, þāra.)
The origin of the determiner they (“the, those”) is unclear. The OED, English Dialect Dictionary and Middle English Dictionary define it and its Middle English predecessor thei as a demonstrative determiner or adjective meaning “those” or “the”. This could be a continuation of the use of the English pronoun they's Old Norse etymon þeir as a demonstrative meaning “those”, but the OED and EDD say it is limited to southern, especially southwestern, England, specifically outside the region of Norse contact.
Senses: examples: text: They rooks as you see … only coom a few year agoo.
ref: 1878, Louis John Jennings, Field Paths and Green Lanes, quoting an old East Sussex man
text: Darn'd if they Cockney Chaps can zee there worn't nort but lie in him.
ref: 1883, Judy, or the London serio-comic journal, volume 33, Harvard University:
text: page 21: "But you spile [spoil] they gals - they won't be for no good, they won't."
page 30: "'Twas all about they rewks [rooks]," he sobbed.
page 54: "mucking the place up with they weeds"
ref: 1895, Under the Chilterns: A Story of English Village Life:
text: "Bodies and souls," she cried, "if I didn't reckon to have hidden they boots safe from un in the stick-rick." "Off wi' they tight-wasted shoes o' yours, Martha."
ref: 1901, Gwendoline Keats (of Devon), Tales of Dunstáble Weir, page 55
text: Forty quid a fuckin ticket. No shy they British Rail cunts, ah kin fuckin tell ye.
ref: 1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 114:
glosses: The, those.
examples: text: MARY ELLEN is a different case from the others. She has five children and, she claims: "I don't know who they father is. I ain't never kept track. They is always another one. You know, I can catch me a guy[.]"
ref: 1974, Arthur Hippler, Hunter's Point: a black ghetto in America, page 88:
text: It's a shame to see someone talk so bad about the gays and lesbians in prison. She is brainwash to the fact that she think every gay and lesbian in prison is guilty of they crimes.
ref: 1988 February 7, Mike Riegle, quoting John Royal, “Why Does GCN Have A Prisoner Project?”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 29, page 10:
text: But all they kids be listenin' to me religiously / So I'm signin' CDs while police fingerprint me
ref: 2002, Eminem, Sing for the Moment:
text: I got bitches askin' me about the code for the Wi-Fi / So they can talk about they timeline / And show me pictures of they friends
ref: 2015, “Energy”, in If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, performed by Drake:
text: He guessed one of the well-off people living in these houses must have took a shine to Cody and decided how he'd look good stuck up on they roof.
ref: 2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright, published 2016, page 175:
qualifier: including African-American Vernacular
glosses: Their.