think

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English thenken, later thinken,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English þencan (“to conceive in the mind, think”) (past tense þōhte),^[3][5][6][7] inherited from Proto-Germanic *þankijaną.^[3][8] It is cognate with Old Frisian thenka, Old Saxon thenkian, Dutch denken, Old High German denken, German denken, Old Norse þekkja (“to perceive, know”) and Gothic 𐌸𐌰𐌲𐌺𐌾𐌰𐌽 (þagkjan, “to consider, think”),^{[3][5][9][10]} and comes from the same Germanic base as thought and thank.^[9][11] The verb þencan is generally explained as a causative of þyncan (“to seem, appear”), so that it first meant "to cause to appear to oneself".^{[3][6][8][11]} The verb þyncan (past tense þūhte) goes back to Proto-Germanic *þunkijaną, with the cognates dünken and 𐌸𐌿𐌲𐌺𐌾𐌰𐌽 (þugkjan, “to seem”); the OED takes it as a zero grade of the same Indo-European base.^[9][8][5][2] In Middle English the forms of þencan and þyncan fell together as thinken, and their past tenses merged in thoughte;^{[12][5][13][8]} the sense "to seem" was absorbed or lost, except in methinks, "it seems to me".^[8][5][11] Further back, the OED and Barnhart compare Latin tongeō (“to know”), recorded only in Ennius, and Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary give a root Proto-Indo-European *tong- (“to think, feel”),^{[9][3][8][14]} but Etymonline notes that Boutkan rejects the proposed cognates and suggests a substrate source.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To conceive in the mind, to think: Old English þencan is recorded in Beowulf, which Barnhart dates about 725,^[3][7] and the OED's earliest quotation for forming an idea in the mind is from King Alfred's translation of Boethius.^[9] In Old English the verb also meant to consider, meditate, remember, intend and wish.^[8][7]

Semantic evolution

Ayto takes the original idea to be that of causing images to appear to oneself, in the mind.^[11] The Old English verb already covered most of the modern range, from meditating and remembering to intending,^[8][7] while the related verb þyncan meant "to seem" and was used impersonally, as in me þyncþ, "it seems to me".^[3][9] Middle English kept the two apart in meaning but not in form: Chaucer has thinken "to seem" 204 times and thinken "to think" 278 times.^[15] Once the forms had merged, "to seem" died out in early modern English, the OED's last examples being from 1658 and 1672, and survives only in methinks.^[9][5][8] Johnson (1755) defined think first as "to imagine; to image in the mind; to conceive" and then as "to believe; to esteem".^[16] The noun, an act of thinking, appeared in the 1830s,^[9][8][2] and the phrase to have another think coming, to be badly mistaken, in 1896.^[9] From 1903 the verb took an adjective as complement, as in think big.^[9] In dialects the past tense took many forms, among them thowt, thocht and thunk;^[17] thunk is also used jocularly.^[5][2]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English þencan, to conceive in the mind, in Beowulf.^[3]
• Old English – þyncan, to seem, often impersonal (it seems to me).^[9][3]
• c. 1175 – Middle English thenken, to think.^[9][3]
• 1672 – last record of think "to seem" outside methinks.^[9]
• 1751 – not even to think about something, to refuse to consider it.^[9]
• 1834 – noun, an act of thinking.^[9][8][2]
• 1835 – noun, a personal opinion.^[9]
• 1886 – noun, an idea, a thought.^[9]
• 1896 – to have another think coming, to be greatly mistaken.^[9]
• 1903 – with an adjective, to have one's mind set on something, as in think big.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To have an opinion or belief; to judge or consider: She thinks the bridge is unsafe.^[18][2]
2. To use the mind to form ideas, reason or make a decision; to ponder, often with about or of: Let me think about your offer.^[18][9]
3. To be capable of conscious thought.^[18][9]
4. To call to mind; to remember: He couldn't think where he had parked.^[18][9]
5. To form an idea of; to imagine or picture.^[2][9]
6. To expect or intend: I never thought to see her again.^[18][9]
7. To have one's mind set on something, as in think big.^[9][2]
8. (obsolete) To seem or appear, usually impersonally; it survives in methinks.^[2][9][5]

Noun

1. (informal) An act of thinking: I'll have a think and ring you tomorrow.^[9][5][2]
2. to have another think coming: to be greatly mistaken.^[9][5][2]
3. An idea or opinion.^[9][2]

Word family

• thinker
• misthink
• outthink
• thinkable
• bethink
• rethink
• unthink
• unthinkable

Related words

• thought
• thunk
• thank
• methinks

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
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 g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ 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 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins