A thorny beginning

I love discovering fascinating gems about the originals of words that we use today. Here’s one I thought I’d share with you.

Ye

(as in Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese – which, incidentally, is the name of a Grade II pub in Fleet Street, London, rebuilt after the Great Fire of London, and once boasted regular patrons such as Charles Dickens, G. K. Chesterton and Mark Twain).

The definite article ‘the’ that we use today was originally, in Middle English (Early Middle Ages), written using the Anglo Saxon runic letter thorn (þ). It was pronounced ‘th’, like our word ‘the’.

However, when the printing press arrived in England in the 15th century, printers didn’t have the metal type for the letter ‘thorn’ and, in its place, they used the letter ‘y’, adding the ‘e’, but was still pronounced as ‘the’.

As a result, the use of ‘ye’ for ‘the’ may well have inspired those lovely faux-archaic names such as ‘Ye Olde Curiosite Shoppe’.

So, when you see Ye Olde Curiosite Shoppe, now know that the proper pronunciation would be ‘The Old Curiosite Shoppe’.