thorn
/θoɹn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.48 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
That which pricks or annoys; anything troublesome.
noun
A letter of Latin script (capital: Þ, small: þ), borrowed from the futhark; today used only in Icelandic to represent the voiceless dental fricative, but originally used in several early Germanic scripts, including Old English where it represented the dental fricatives that are today written th (Old English did not have phonemic voicing distinctions for fricatives).
name
A topographic surname from Middle English for someone living near a thorn bush.
name
A place name:
Example Sentences
- "On the mountains a few junipers and piñons are found, and cactuses, agave, and yuccas, low, fleshy plants with bayonets and thorns."
- "the white thorn"
- "the cockspur thorn"
- "There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me."
- "The guilt of empire, all its thorns and cares, / Be only mine."
- "In Old English manuscripts thorn and eth did not have different phonetic values but were used positionally[.]"
Etymology
From Middle English thorn, þorn, from Old English þorn, from Proto-West Germanic *þorn, from Proto-Germanic *þurnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *tr̥nós, from *(s)ter- (“stiff”). Cognates Near cognates include West Frisian toarn, Low German Doorn, Dutch doorn, German Dorn, Danish and Norwegian torn, Swedish torn, törne, Gothic 𐌸𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽𐌿𐍃 (þaurnus). Further cognates include Old Church Slavonic трънъ (trŭnŭ, “thorn”), Russian тёрн (tjorn), Polish cierń, Kamkata-viri taňi, tai (“thorn”), Sanskrit तृण (tṛ́ṇa, “grass”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /θoɹn/
- British English: /θɔːn/
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Medicine.