Etymologically
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thine

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English thin,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English þīn (“thy, thine; of thee”),[5][6][7][8] the possessive of þū (“thou”), originally also its genitive,[5][8][9] from Proto-Germanic *þīnaz.[7][10] Its cognates are Old Frisian thīn, Old Saxon thīn, Middle Dutch dijn, Old High German dīn, dein in German, Old Norse þinn and Gothic 𐌸𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (þeins).[6][5][7][10] Hoad and Etymonline derive it from Proto-Indo-European *t(w)eino-, a suffixed form of the second person singular base *tu-, the source of thou and thee.[7][5] Thy is a reduced form of it, used at first before consonants only.[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Thy, belonging to thee, before a noun: Old English, in Beowulf;[6] Barnhart dates the Old English possessive to before 830.[8]

Semantic evolution

Old English þīn was declined like an adjective and also served as the genitive of thou, a use that did not survive into Middle English.[6] In Middle English the reduced form thy took over before consonants, so that thine remained before a vowel or h ("thine eyes") and as a pronoun standing alone ("the fault is thine");[5][6][11] Johnson (1755) described it as used for thy when separated from its noun.[12] In Chaucer thy was already far more common than thin.[13] Both forms then gave way to your and yours in general use, and thine is now archaic or dialectal, kept in religious and solemn language and in phrases such as thou and thine and mine and thine.[6][9][14] It has closed letters since 1578.[6]

Timeline

  • before 830 – Old English þīn, possessive of thou.[8]
  • Old English – thy, before a noun.[6] As a pronoun, that which belongs to thee, and thou and thine.[6]
  • before 1175 – the form thine.[8]
  • before 1225 – of thine.[6]
  • 1578 – used at the end of a letter.[6]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. (archaic) That which belongs to thee; thy one or thy ones: The choice is thine.[14][2][6]
  2. (archaic) thou and thine: you and your family or people.[6][9]

Adjective

  1. (archaic) Thy, used especially before a vowel or h: thine eyes.[14][2][6]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ 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)
  5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins