quoth
/kwoʊθ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.08 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
Said.
Archaic; Literary
verb
To say.
Archaic
Example Sentences
- "Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore! / Quoth the raven, "Nevermore.""
- "“Pull, if ye never pull’d before; / Good ringers, pull your best,” quoth he."
- "“Good morrow to thee, jolly fellow,” quoth Robin, “thou seemest happy this merry morn.” ¶ “Ay, that am I,” quoth the jolly Butcher, “and why should I not be so? Am I not hale in wind and limb? Have I not the bonniest lass in all Nottinghamshire? And lastly, am I not to be married to her on Thursday next in sweet Locksley Town?”"
- "But the Healing-one stood before the under-king, and the under-king arraigned him, quothing, thou art the king of the Jews? the Healing-one quoths him, thou quoths."
- "The owner had the power of transmitting the possession to an heir by bequest, by quothing or speaking forth the name of the intended successor to the lord."
- "“Why, no,” quothed Jonathan; “for to tell thee the truth, friend, though I am a man of peace, being of that religious order known as the Society of Friends, I am not so weak in person nor so timid in disposition as to warrant me in being afraid of any one.[…]”"
Etymology
From Middle English quoth, quath, from Old English cwæþ (first and third person past indicative of cweþan (“to say, speak to, address, exhort, admonish”)), from Proto-Germanic *kwaþ (first and third person past indicative of Proto-Germanic *kweþaną (“to say”)). Unrelated to quote.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *gʷet-, quoth, cwæþ, *kwaþ, *kweþaną
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /kwoʊθ/
- British English: /kwəʊθ/