''prithee'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

↩ 🔳 🔳 🔳

---

Primary

⁀➴

''prithee'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260606185347-00-⌔

prithee - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Interjection

prithee

• (archaic) please; used to make a question or request more polite or more forceful.
  • ✤ What tidings send our scouts? I prithee, speak.¹
  • ✤ But tell me, stranger,
    I prithee say, does my old master’s heir
    Still breathe this vital air?²

Etymology

Contraction of I +‎ pray +‎ thee.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈpɹɪði/
• Audio (Southern England): 🔊
• Rhymes: -ɪði

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC,: ↩

2. 1781, Horace Walpole, The Mysterious Mother, Act 1 Scene 2: ↩

Link to original

Secondary

• • •

---