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Etymology and origin of the English word -th

English has two main suffixes spelled -th, one making abstract nouns and one making ordinal numbers, with different Germanic and Indo-European sources.[1][2] The third -th of doth and hath is a variant of the archaic verb ending -eth.[2][3]

Pronunciation

-th1 abstract nouns

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
Inherited from
Old English -þu via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *-ita

Etymology

The noun suffix is inherited from Middle English -the, also -th,[3] inherited from Old English -þu, also -þo and -þ,[1][2][3][5] from Proto-Germanic *-iþō,[4][5][6][1] from Proto-Indo-European *-ita.[5][1] It is cognate with Old High German -ida, Old Norse -þ and Gothic -𐌹𐌸𐌰 (-iþa),[2][5][3][1] and Etymonline compares the Latin ending of lībertās.[5] Nouns from verbs have a more mixed source: in bath, birth, death and oath it represents several Indo-European endings in t, which became þ in Germanic.[1][6] In height, theft and sleight the sound became t.[1][2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English nouns of quality from adjectives usually show umlaut in the stem: filth from fýlþ, beside foul, as well as health, length, mirth, strength and truth.[1][6]

Semantic evolution

Later analogy added dearth and depth in Middle English, and then breadth, sloth and wealth.[1] From verbs it gave growth and tilth, and by later analogy spilth and stealth.[1][6] Etymonline says the suffix was once more widespread, as Middle English stilþe, silence, and wrengthe, wrongness, show.[5] It still tempts coiners, as with Ruskin's illth.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1200 – stilþe, silence.[5]
  • c. 1300 – wrengthe, wrongness or distortion.[5]
  • 17th century – swelth, swelling.[5]

Meanings

Suffix

  1. Forming nouns from verbs for an action, process or its result: growth, birth.[8][9][3]
  2. Forming nouns of state or quality from adjectives: width, warmth, truth.[8][9][3]

Word family

-th2 ordinal numbers

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
Inherited from
Old English -þa via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *-to-

Etymology

The ordinal suffix is inherited from Middle English -the, also -te and -ethe,[3][10] inherited from Old English -þa, also -þe, -oða and -ta,[1][6][2][3][10] from Proto-Germanic *-þa-,[5] from Proto-Indo-European *-to-,[5][1] which the OED identifies with a superlative suffix.[1][9] It is cognate with Old High German -do, Old Norse -di, Ancient Greek -τος (-tos) and Latin -tus, as in quīntus.[2][5][10][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English used it with all ordinals except fīfta, sixta, ellefta and twelfta, where a preceding consonant protected the original t.[1][7] Elsewhere the fricative is due to the position of the stress, under Verner's law.[1] The tens had -oða, today's -eth.[1][6]

Semantic evolution

Literary English later levelled the forms with t to -th, reshaping them as fifth, sixth and twelfth.[1][7][2] Scottish, northern and many midland dialects went the other way and use -t with all simple numerals after third, as in fourt and tent.[1] Today it goes on all simple numbers from fourth onward, and only on the last part of a compound number.[1][9] It also forms fractions.[9] From it comes the use with a dash for an unnamed regiment in fiction, and physicists formed zeroth from it by 1896.[1][5]

Timeline

  • 1847 – with a dash, for an unspecified regiment, in Thackeray's Vanity Fair.[1]
  • 1896 – zeroth, in physics.[5]

Meanings

Suffix

  1. Forming ordinal numbers from four on: tenth, thousandth.[8][3][9]
  2. Forming fractions: a tenth.[9]
  3. Written after figures to show an ordinal: June 9th.[3]

Word family

Usage notes

It is not a syllable of its own and doesn't affect the stress of a word.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“-th.” Etymologically, 6 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/-th. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

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