OXFORD 9000
📚 noun • entry_id 7799

thorn

/θɔːn/
Meanings (ES + gloss)
thorn
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).
In Old English manuscripts thorn and eth did not have different phonetic values but were used positionally[.]
See also Etymology of ye (definite article).
Word forms