thee for the

[Dennis R. Preston]

Matt,

When I went there with my new Wisconsin PhD in hand in 1967, it was
one of the first things they stressed to me. It was not Ohio State
Univ. It was THE Ohio State Univ. Long-time obsession.

dInIs

>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Matthew Gordon <gordonmj at MISSOURI.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: thee for the
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Not surprisingly, there are lots of Google hits for "Thee Ohio State
>University." Is the obsessive use of the definite article here a newish
>phenomenon? It first came to my attention in the early 90s.
>
>-Matt Gordon
>
>
>On 11/12/07 9:52 PM, "James Harbeck" <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA> wrote:
>
>>  A restaurant in the Agincourt part of Toronto (often called
>>  Asiancourt because of its high percentage of Chinese and other East
>>  Asian residents) is called Thee Asian Kitchen. You can find its
>>  website at http://www.theeasiankitchen.com/ . It serves Thai,
>>  Japanese, and Chinese cuisine. My initial take on it is that this is
>>  intended to be a somehow "classier" or more formal/archaic rendering
>>  of "the". It could, on the other hand, be a Thai name ("thee" is, I
>>  think, a word in Thai).
>>
>>  A little looking on the web finds Thee Bungalow,
>>  http://www.theebungalow.com/ , in San Diego -- it has apparently been
>>  there for 30 years. You can also find assorted hits if you Google
>>  |thee shoppe|, for instance http://www.theeamishshoppe.com/ and
>>  http://www.theeclockmaker.com/ .
>>
>>  Evidently this isn't especially uncommon or new (well, of course,
>>  "thee" can be seen for "the" in some Middle English texts) in
>>  signage, but I have to say I'm far more used to seeing "Ye" (always
>>  reanalyzed, of course -- nobody knows about thorn these days!). For
>>  this area in particular (Toronto and, more specifically, Agincourt),
>>  I think the "thee" is something new. The only other business I can
>>  find with "thee" in its name in the Toronto area in yellowpages.ca is
>>  Thee Place for Paws Grooming Studio in Barrie (an exurb of Toronto).
>>  I find three "Ye Oldes". (Googling "ye olde" gets 1,890,000; "thee
>>  olde" gets 3,630, but it would seem that "thee" can be used without
>>  the "olde" whereas "ye" always seems to get it -- I'm sure if anyone
>>  has exceptions I'll hear of it.)
>>
>>  I wonder whether "thee" use in this way is on the increase or
>>  decrease or is level.
>>
>>  Just incidentally, "kermit thee frog" gets 381 ghits. But I don't
>>  have a sense (purely impressionistically) that "thee" for emphatic
>>  "the" is really current.
>>
>>  James Harbeck.
>>
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--
It should be the chief aim of a university professor to exhibit
himself [sic] in his own true character - that is, as an ignorant man
thinking, actively utilizing his small share of knowledge. Alfred
North Whitehead

Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
Morrill Hall 15-C
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1036 USA
Office: (517) 353-4736
Fax: (517) 353-3755

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