You know how some of those little shops put “Ye” in front of their names? Like Ye Olde Soupe Shoppe?

It’s natural to assume (as I once did) that it’s an old form of you or your—so it would be pronounced “Yee.”

But that’s not the case, and the truth (as often happens) is a little less romantic. The first letter in the shoppes’ names is not a y, but is a character called a thorn.

It was used in the Old English alphabet, but was gradually replaced by th. So what we call “ye” would be more appropriately rendered “the.” (There was a pronoun spelled ye, similar in meaning to thou. But that’s not the ye we’re talking about here.)

Maybe you already knew this, but it’s worth repeating every now and then—even though it’s not exactly a thorn in anybody’s side.