tho

adv

Etymology: Simplified reform spelling. Popular in American English in the earlier 20th century. Like thru, it failed to establish itself fully, but remains in informal contexts or where brevity is needed. Compare tho'.

1. Alternative spelling of though.

   “The English are told as children that maize is food for pigs, and tho Americans eat maizebread with pleasure and have recently done so to a huge extent in order to make possible exports of wheat to Europe, the English persist in their unfounded prejudice against it.”

   “I wonder now when I will find time to read it but it is a treasure anyway tho heavy in my knapsack, […]”

article

Etymology: From Middle English tho, tha, from Old English þā (“the, those”, plural), from Proto-West Germanic *þai, from Proto-Germanic *þai (“those”), from Proto-Indo-European *to-, *só (“that”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian do (“the”, plural). Doublet of they.

1. The (plural form); those.

conj

Etymology: From Middle English tho, tha, from Old English þā (“then, when”), from Proto-Germanic *þa- (“that”), from Proto-Indo-European *to-, *só (“that”). See also German da (“then, thereupon”).

1. When.

noun

1. Initialism of tritiated water (“³H-¹H-O, tritium-protium water”)

pron

Etymology: From Middle English tho, tha, from Old English þā (“the, those”, plural), from Proto-West Germanic *þai, from Proto-Germanic *þai (“those”), from Proto-Indo-European *to-, *só (“that”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian do (“the”, plural). Doublet of they.

1. Those; they.