Thorn is a character in the
Anglo-Saxon and
Icelandic alphabets. The character originated with the
runic futhark
?, an ancient alphabet used by certain northern
European peoples.
It is represented as þ (lowercase) or Þ (uppercase), and has the sound of either an unvoiced
th (such as in the
English word "thick") or the voiced form (such as in English "the"), though the usage is restricted to the former in Icelandic.
It was used in writing [Middle English]? before the invention of the printing press: Caxton?, the first printer in England, brought with him type made in Continental Europe, which lacked thorn, yogh, and edh. He substituted "y" in place of thorn, and in fact "y" is still often substituted for it on gravestones and quaint store signs: "ye olde candies shoppe" should be read as "THe olde....", although it is jocularly pronounced "yee".
Thorn in
Culmer Land is the German name of the city of
Torun currently in
Poland, which was part of
Prussia. The Latin names
Thorunensis and
Torunensis are also used for this city.
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