thorn
pronunciation
How to pronounce thorn in British English:
UK [θɔːn]
How to pronounce thorn in American English:
US [θɔːrn]
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- Noun:
- something that causes irritation and annoyance
- a sharp-pointed tip on a stem or leaf
- a Germanic character of runic origin
Word Origin
- thorn
- thorn: [OE] Thorn is an ancient word, which goes all the way back to an Indo-European *trnus. The Germanic descendant of this was *thurnuz, which evolved into German dorn, Dutch doorn, Swedish and Danish torn, and English thorn.
- thorn (n.)
- Old English þorn "sharp point on a stem or branch," earlier "thorny tree or plant," from Proto-Germanic *thurnuz (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Frisian thorn, Dutch doorn, Old High German dorn, German Dorn, Old Norse þorn, Gothic þaurnus), from PIE *trnus (cognates: Old Church Slavonic trunu "thorn," Sanskrit trnam "blade of grass," Greek ternax "stalk of the cactus," Irish trainin "blade of grass"), from *(s)ter-n- "thorny plant," from root *ster- (1) "stiff" (see stark). Figurative sense of "anything which causes pain" is recorded from early 13c. (thorn in the flesh is from II Cor. xii:7). Also an Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic runic letter (þ), named for the word of which it was the initial (see -th-).
Example
- 1. The indian boy took a sharp thorn from a bramble .
- 2. He was already a thorn under the hide of the apartheid regime , singing things that were forbidden .
- 3. All about us is noise and bramble , thorn and din , each one of our ancestors on our tongues .
- 4. John felt the sharp jab of the thorn , and he winced , but he didn 't want to show he was a coward , not like how he was with the night nurse .
- 5. Mr al-zawahiri predicted that " our brothers will be a thorn in the necks of the american and french crusaders and their allies . "