English
they
They comes from Old Norse þeir ‘those’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *tóy.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*tóy1reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*þai1‘they’reconstructed
- Proto-Norsec. 200–800 CEþaiʀ1‘they’reconstructed
- Old Norsec. 800–1350þeir1‘those’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500þei1
- Englishearliest quotation 1611they1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English they, which cites OED, MED
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, King James Bible:: “But this I say, brethren, the time is short:…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*tóyWiktionary, English they, which cites OED, MEDreconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*þaiWiktionary, English they, which cites OED, MED‘they’reconstructed
- Proto-Norsec. 200–800 CEþaiʀWiktionary, English they, which cites OED, MED‘they’reconstructed
- Old Norsec. 800–1350þeirWiktionary, English they, which cites OED, MED‘those’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500þeiWiktionary, English they, which cites OED, MED
- Englishearliest quotation 1611theyWiktionary, English they, which cites OED, MED. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, King James Bible:: “But this I say, brethren, the time is short:…”
The story
The Norse term (whence also Icelandic þeir (‘they’), Faroese teir (‘they’), Danish de (‘they’), Swedish de (‘they’), Norwegian Nynorsk dei (‘they’)) is from Proto-Germanic *þai (‘those’) (from Proto-Indo-European *to- (‘that’)), whence also Old English þā (‘those’) (whence obsolete English tho), Scots thae, thai, thay (‘they; those’), Swabian dia (‘they’). The origin of the determiner they (‘the, those’) is unclear.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. This could be a continuation of the use of the English pronoun they's Old Norse etymon þeir as a demonstrative meaning “those”, but the OED and EDD say it is limited to southern, especially southwestern, England, specifically outside the region of Norse contact.
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with they, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Germanic *þai
- tho ← þā ← *þai
Explore everything descended from *tóy →
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Today it means
pron A group of entities previously mentioned.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “they”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *tóy / they