þem
See also: them
Middle English
Alternative forms
- them, þeim, þeime, þeym, þeyme, þeme, þaim, þaime, þaym, þayme, þam, þame, þeȝȝm
- þaem, yem, yam, yame, yham (Northern)
- yem, yam, yame, yham (northeast Midland)
- taim, taym, tam (Northern, after t or d)
Etymology 1
From Old Norse þeim. Compare hem (“them”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /θɛi̯m/, /ðɛi̯m/, (originally unstressed) /ðɛm/[1][2]
Pronoun
þem (nominative þei)
- Third-person plural accusative pronoun: them[3]
- 1430–1440, “II. Playsterers. The Creation, to the Fifth Day.”, in Lucy Toulmin Smith, editor, York Plays: The Plays Performed by the Crafts or Mysteries of York on the Day of Corpus Christi in the 14th, 15th, and 16th Centuries: […] (in Middle English), Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, published 1885, OCLC 28074724, lines 17–20, page 9:
- Þe water I will set / to flowe bothe fare and nere, / And þhan þe firmament, / in mydis to set þame sere.
- The water I will set / to flow both far and near, / And then the firmament, / in their midst to set them sere [separately].
-
- (reflexive) themselves
Descendants
- English: them, thame
- Scots: thaim, them
See also
Middle English personal pronouns
nominative | accusative | dative | genitive | possessive | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
singular | 1st-person | I, ich, ik | me | min mi1 | min | ||
2nd-person | þou | þe | þin þi1 | þin | |||
3rd-person | m | he | him hine2 | him | his | his hisen | |
f | sche, heo | hire heo | hire | hire hires, hiren | |||
n | hit | hit him2 | his, hit | — | |||
dual3 | 1st-person | wit | unk | unker | |||
2nd-person | ȝit | inc | inker | ||||
plural | 1st-person | we | us, ous | oure | oure oures, ouren | ||
2nd-person4 | ye | yow | your | your youres, youren | |||
3rd-person | inh. | he | hem he2 | hem | here | here heres, heren | |
bor. | þei | þem, þeim | þeir | þeir þeires, þeiren |
1Used preconsonantally or before h.
2Early or dialectal.
3Dual pronouns are only sporadically found in Early Middle English; after that, they are replaced by plural forms. There are no third-person dual forms in Middle English.
4Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.
References
- Brink, Daniel (1992), “Variation between <þ-> and <t-> in the Ormulum”, in Irmengard Rauch, Gerald F. Carr and Robert L. Kyes, editors, On Germanic Linguistics: Issues and Methods (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs; 68), De Gruyter Mouton, DOI:, →ISBN, pages 21-35.
- Thurber, Beverly A. (15 February 2011), “Voicing of Initial Interdental Fricatives in Early Middle English Function Words”, in Journal of Germanic Linguistics, volume 23, issue 1, Cambridge University Press, DOI:, pages 65-81.
- “theim, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Determiner
þem
- (Southwest) Alternative form of þan (“the, that, this”)
Noun
þem (plural þemes)
- Alternative form of teme (“family, tribe”)
Noun
þem (third-person singular simple present þemeþ, present participle þemende, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle þemed)
- Alternative form of temen (“to produce offspring”)