than

English Online Dictionary. What means than‎? What does than mean?

English

Alternative forms

• 'n (nonstandard)
• thanne (obsolete)
• then (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English than, thanne, from Old English þanne, a variant of þonne (“then, since, because”), from Proto-West Germanic *þan, from Proto-Germanic *þan (“at that, at that time, then”), from earlier *þam, from Proto-Indo-European *tóm, accusative masculine of *só (“demonstrative pronoun, that”).

Cognate with Dutch dan (“than”), German denn (“than”), German dann (“then”). Doublet of then.

Pronunciation

• (stressed form) enPR: thăn, thĕn, IPA^(key): /ðæn/, /ðɛn/
  • Rhymes: -æn, -ɛn
• (unstressed form) enPR: thən, IPA^(key): /ðən/, [ðn̩]
• Homophone: then (unstressed form, also for some speakers stressed form)

Conjunction

than

1. Used in comparisons, to introduce the basis of comparison.

2. (obsolete outside dialects, usually used with for) Because; for.
   • 1854, Reformation series:

     If thou say yes, then puttest thou on Christ (that is, the wisdome of God, the Father) unkunning, unpower, or euil will: for than he could not make his rule so good as an other did his.

Preposition

than

1. introduces a comparison, and is associated with comparatives, and with words such as more, less, and fewer. Typically, it seeks to measure the force of an adjective or similar description between two predicates.

Usage notes

Usage prescriptivists have a number of rules concerning than. According to them, than is not a preposition to govern the oblique case (although it has been used as such by writers such as William Shakespeare, whose 1600 play Julius Caesar contains the line A man no mightier than thyself or me. . ., and Samuel Johnson, who wrote No man had ever more discernment than him, in finding out the ridiculous.). Than functions as both conjunction and preposition; when it is used as a conjunction, it governs the nominative case, and when a preposition, the oblique case. To determine the case of a pronoun following "than", a writer can look to implied words and determine how they would relate to the pronoun.

Examples :

• You are a better swimmer than she.
  • represents You are a better swimmer than she is.
  • therefore You are a better swimmer than her is, according to such prescriptivists, a solecism.

• They like you more than her.
  • represents They like you more than they like her.
  • therefore They like you more than she is a solecism, if it attempts to represent the previous sentence. It may be correct, however, if it represents They like you more than she likes you.

Some prescriptivists insist that whom must follow than (not who); although according to the above rule, who would be the "correct" form in the first example. Critics of this often cite this mandatory exception as evidence that the prescriptivist rule is logically erroneous, in addition to its being inconsistent with well-established usage.

Translations

Adverb

than (not comparable)

1. (now chiefly dialectal or a misspelling) At that time; then.

Anagrams

• ha'n't, tahn, Hnat, hant, ha'nt, Nath, NAHT, han't, -anth, anth.

Bih

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Chamic *dhaːn, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *daqan (“branch, bough”).

Noun

than

1. branch

Cornish

Noun

than

1. Aspirate mutation of tan.

Haroi

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Chamic *dhaːn, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *daqan (“branch, bough”).

Noun

than

1. branch

Jarai

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Chamic *dhaːn, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *daqan (“branch, bough”).

Noun

than

1. branch

Middle English

Alternative forms

• thanne

Etymology

From Old English þonne.

Conjunction

than

1. than

Descendants

• English: than

Adverb

than

1. then
   • 14^th Century, Chaucer, General Prologue

     And whan that he wel dronken hadde the wyn,
     Than wolde he speke no word but Latyn.

     And when he had drunk all the wine
     He would not speak a word other than Latin

Descendants

• English: then
• Yola: than

Old Dutch

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *þan

Adverb

than

1. then

References

• Altniederfränkischer Psalm 2

Old High German

Alternative forms

• thanne, thanna, dhanne, danne, danna

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *þan

Adverb

than

1. then, there, when, at that time

Conjunction

than

1. from there, therefore, if, because, after
2. than, (comparative)

References

1. Braune, Wilhelm. Althochdeutsches Lesebuch, zusammengestellt und mit Glossar versehen

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [tʰaːn˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [tʰaːŋ˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [tʰaːŋ˧˧]
• Homophone: thang

Etymology 1

Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 炭 (“coal”, SV: thán).

Noun

than • (炭, 炮)

1. coal

   than củi ― charcoal

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 嘆 (SV: thán).

Verb

than

1. to complain

Derived terms

Anagrams

• tanh

Welsh

Preposition

than

1. Aspirate mutation of tan.

Mutation

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English than, from Old English þonne.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ðan/

Adverb

than

1. then

Preposition

than

1. than

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 86 & 96