STRONG a.
Applied to forms in Anglo-Saxon, etc., which retain the old declensional endings. In the Teutonic languages the vowel stems have held the original endings most firmly, and are called strong; the stems in -n are called weak other constant stems conform, or are irregular. F. A. March. Strong conjugation (Gram.), the conj…
THANE n.
A dignitary under the Anglo-Saxons and Danes in England. Of these there were two orders, the king's thanes, who attended the kings in their courts and held lands immediately of them, and the ordinary thanes, who were lords of manors and who had particular jurisdiction within their limits. After the Conquest, this title…
THORN n.
The name of the Anglo-Saxon letter th, as in thin, then. So called because it was the initial letter of thorn, a spine. Thorn apple (Bot.), Jamestown weed. -- Thorn broom (Bot.), a shrub that produces thorns. -- Thorn hedge, a hedge of thorn-bearing trees or bushes. -- Thorn devil. (Zoöl.) See Moloch, 2. -- Thorn h…
U n.
as a vowel or semivowel, and V only as a consonant. The true primary vowel sound of U, in Anglo-Saxon, was the sound which it still retains in most of the languages of Europe, that of long oo, as in tool, and short oo, as in wood, answering to the French ou in tour. Etymologically U is most closely related to o, y (vow…