thew
/θ(j)u/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.17 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An aspect of the body which indicates physical strength; hence, muscle and/or sinew; muscular development.
Archaic
verb
To instruct (someone) in morals or values; also (more generally) to chastise or discipline (someone); to teach or train (someone).
Obsolete; Transitive verb
name
A surname from Middle English.
Example Sentences
- "I felt the thews of Anakim, / The pulses of a Titan's heart."
- "[C]are I for the limbe, the thevves, the ſtature, bulke and big aſſemblance of a man: giue me the ſpirit […]"
- "[…] Romans novv / Haue Thevves, and Limbes, like to their Anceſtors; / But vvoe the vvhile, our Fathers mindes are dead, / And vve are gouern'd vvith our Mothers ſpirits, / Our yoake, and ſufferance, ſhevv vs VVomaniſh."
- "For nature creſſant does not grovve alone / In thevvs and bulkes, but as this temple vvaxes, / The invvard ſervice of the minde and ſoule / Grovves vvide vvithal, […]"
- "Would'ſt thou afford him to me for a guard / Or ſweeper of my ſtalls, or to ſupply / My kids with leaves, he ſhould on bulkier thewes / Supported ſtand, though nouriſh'd but with whey."
- "[M]y fellow traveller, to judge by his thewes and sinews, was a man who might have set danger at defiance with as much impunity as most men. He was strong, and well-built; and, judging from his gold-laced hat and cockade, seemed to have served in the army, or, at least, to belong to the military profession in one capacity or other."
Etymology
From Middle English theu, thew (“way of behaving towards others, bearing, manners; habit, practice; good manners, courtesy; characteristic act; characteristic, trait; custom, tradition; established rule, ordinance; injunction; moral character; (in the plural) set of moral principles, morals; moral quality, virtue or vice; might, power, strength”) [and other forms] (often in the plural form theus, thewes), from Old English þēaw (“general practice of a community, custom, usage; mode of conduct, behaviour, manner; (in the plural) customs, virtue”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *þauw, from Proto-Germanic *þawwaz (“custom; habit”); further etymology uncertain, tentatively identified by the Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen (Etymological Dictionary of Old High German) as a reflex of an s-less variant of Proto-Indo-European *(s)tāu-, *(s)te- (“to stand; to place”), from *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”). Cognates * Old Frisian thāw * Old High German dau, thau (“coercion; discipline; tuition”) * Old Saxon thau (“custom, usage; habit”)
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *steh₂-, theu, þēaw, *þauw, *þawwaz, *(s)tāu-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /θ(j)u/
- British English: /θjuː/