þorn
þorn
Old English
“The Old English letter thorn (Þ, þ) — which represented the 'th' sound — was named after the plant. When printers dropped it, the word 'the' was briefly spelled 'ye,' and nobody knew it was the same word.”
Old English þorn meant both the sharp plant structure and the runic letter (Þ) that represented the 'th' sound. The letter thorn was part of the Old English alphabet, inherited from the Elder Futhark runic system. Each rune was named after a word beginning with its sound: þorn was the rune for /θ/, named after the plant. The thorn rune appears on Anglo-Saxon artifacts dating to the fifth century. The word and the letter were inseparable for a thousand years.
When William Caxton introduced the printing press to England in 1476, his type was cast in Continental foundries that had no thorn character. Printers substituted the letter 'y,' which in certain Gothic typefaces looked similar to thorn. 'The' was printed as 'ye,' 'that' as 'yat,' 'them' as 'yem.' The pronunciation never changed — 'ye' was always pronounced 'the.' The quaint 'ye' in 'Ye Olde Shoppe' is not a 'ye' at all. It is 'the' in disguise, wearing a print-shop costume it has never shed.
Thorns are botanically diverse — the structures we call thorns, spines, and prickles are actually three different things. True thorns are modified stems (hawthorn). Spines are modified leaves (cactus). Prickles are outgrowths of the bark (rose). The word thorn in English covers all three indiscriminately, which drives botanists to frustration. A rose has prickles, not thorns. The public does not care. 'Every rose has its prickles' does not scan.
The crown of thorns placed on Jesus before the crucifixion — mentioned in Matthew 27:29, Mark 15:17, and John 19:2 — has been identified with several species, most commonly Ziziphus spina-christi and Paliurus spina-christi. Both grow in the Levant and have suitably vicious thorns. The word thorn carries more theological weight in English than almost any other plant word. The plant that pricks became the plant that punished.
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Today
The thorn letter is dead in English but alive in Icelandic, where Þ/þ is still part of the alphabet. Icelanders use it daily. The rest of the English-speaking world forgot it existed, and 'ye' olde shops became a twee misunderstanding. The letter named after a plant was killed by a printing press.
The plant itself is everywhere. Thorns, spines, and prickles are three different structures that English calls by one name, and no amount of botanical correction will change this. The word thorn is sharp, short, and refuses to be replaced. It pricks the language the way its namesake pricks the hand.
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