they

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English thei, also thai and in the “Ormulum” þeȝȝ,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old Norse þeir,^{[5][6][7][8][9][3]} the masculine plural of the demonstrative sá, sú, þat.^[7][8][9][3] The OED compares the same form in Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian, Old Swedish þēr and Old Danish the,^[4] and Etymonline þair.^[10] In early Scandinavian these demonstrative forms already served as the third person plural pronoun.^[4] The Norse form is from Proto-Germanic *þai, from Proto-Indo-European *to-, the demonstrative stem,^[10][5] and it corresponds to þā, the plural of that.^[7][8][11] It is related to them and their, also from Norse, and to the.^[9][12][3] The Middle English Dictionary also counts the late Old English form þæȝe.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

As the subject pronoun of the third person plural, the people or things already mentioned: about 1175, in the Ormulum,^[4] where it is already the only form;^[4] Etymonline dates the word to about 1200 and Barnhart to probably before 1200.^[10][13]

Semantic evolution

The Norse pronoun replaced the native hīe, hī, the plural of hē, hēo and hit, whose Middle English forms he, hei had become easily confused with the singular pronouns;^{[10][4][13][7]} the OED thinks that this need to keep the plural distinct drove both the borrowing and its spread.^[4] The spread was gradual: it appears first in texts with much Norse vocabulary, and by about 1400 it had displaced the older forms,^[4][10] while them and their followed later.^[4] Skeat noted that thai was at first chiefly a Northern form.^[14] Chaucer used it 1,765 times, mostly spelled they, and Gower 1,758 times, mostly thei.^[15] With a grammatically singular but collective or universal antecedent (each, everyone) it is recorded from before 1375,^[4][2] with a generic singular antecedent from before 1450,^[4] and Etymonline dates the use with singular nouns to the 1520s.^[10] The indefinite sense "people in general" dates from the late 14th century,^[4][10] and they for anonymous people in authority from 1852 in the OED, 1886 in Etymonline.^[4][10] Since 2009 it has been used for a person whose gender identity is not male or female, usually at that person's request.^[4] In English dialects it is also used as a demonstrative, "those".^[16][6]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – subject pronoun of the third person plural, in the Ormulum.^[4]
• before 1375 – with a collective or universal singular antecedent.^[4][2]
• before 1382 – people in general.^[4]
• c. 1390 – used for them (obsolete by 1694).^[4]
• before 1450 – with a generic singular antecedent such as someone.^[4]
• 1793 – regional, emphatic objective.^[4]
• 1852 – the authorities, regarded as impersonal.^[4][10]
• 2009 – for a person who does not identify as male or female.^[4]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. The people, animals or things already mentioned, as the subject of a verb: the plural of he, she and it: The twins said they would come early.^[17][6][4]
2. People in general, or unspecified people: They say the winter will be hard.^[17][4]
3. (informal) The people in authority, regarded as impersonal.^[4][18][6]
4. Used of a single person whose sex is unknown or irrelevant, especially after someone, everyone or a person.^[17][4]
5. Used of a person who does not identify as male or female.^[4]

Adjective

1. (dialect, England) Those: they apples.^[6][16]

Related words

• them
• their
• that
• the
• theirs

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
16. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
17. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com