-eth

Pronunciation

• There is some evidence that verbs written with this ending in Early Modern English were pronounced as if they ended in -s, which was common in speech before becoming common in writing. Alternatively (or in addition to the former) the Northumbrian dialect of Old English's third-person singular present indicative suffix, -s, may have eventually displaced the -eth suffix.

Origin

From Proto-Germanic *-þi, *-di, from Proto-Indo-European *-ti.

Full definition of -eth

Suffix

1. (archaic) Used to form the third-person singular present tense of verbs.goeth, maketh
2. (humorous) replaces -s or -es (of verb forms and noun plurals), or is appended to other verb forms, forming nonce, pseudoarchaic versions of the word
   I emaileth, he emaileth; thou saideth; he killedeth; respondeth my messageth.

Coordinate terms

• -est