thorn

upper- and lower-case versions of the thorn character (sense 4)

Meanings

Noun

  • A sharp protective spine of a plant.
  • Any shrub or small tree that bears thorns, especially a hawthorn.
  • That which pricks or annoys; anything troublesome.
  • 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).

Verb

  • To pierce with, or as if with, a thorn

Origin

  • From Middle English thorn, þorn, from Old English þorn, þyrn, from Proto-West Germanic *þornu, from Proto-Germanic *þurnuz, from Proto-Indo-European *tr̥nós, from *(s)ter-.
  • Near cognates include West Frisian toarn, Low German Doorn, Dutch doorn, German Dorn, Danish and Norwegian torn, Swedish torn, törne, Gothic 𐌸𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽𐌿𐍃. Further cognates include Old Church Slavonic трънъ ("thorn"), Russian тёрн, Polish cierń, Sanskrit तृण ("grass").

Modern English dictionary

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