Thorough
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The spelling of the adjective thorough, and its related adverb thoroughly, can be a problem for some writers. Thoroughly is one of the 117 mis-spellings listed as 'Common difficulties' in the section on 'Spelling' within 'Writing' in UEfAP. See also Thorough - through.
- In British RP, thorough is pronounced with two syllables ('THURR-uh', IPA: /ˈθʌ rʌ/ where it rhymes with the similarly written borough. In General American, it is realized 'ther-ROE' /θə ˈroʊ/ or 'THUR-roe' /ˈθʌ roʊ/). (This allows occasional confusion with the proper noun Thoreau.) Thorough means 'complete', 'in every detail', 'systematic'.
- If a job is done thoroughly (RP 'THURR-uh-ly' /ˈθʌ rʌ lɪ, GA 'THURR-owe-ly', /ˈθʌ roʊ lɪ/, it is carried out completely and "with 'every 'i' dotted and every 't' crossed'".
- Etymological note:thorough is the same word as the monosyllable through, becoming separated in Middle English. In Old English, they were both þurh. As prepositions are normally less stressed than the noun phrases to which they relate, through, as preposition, remained a monosyllable, as did the adjective meaning 'from end to end'. But the adjectival use meaning 'in every way', 'from end to end', 'throughout', was stressed, and thus realized as two syllables. In older forms of English, both modern through and modern thorough could be written either way: in Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night Dream, Puck's song (I i 2) contains the words
- Over hill, over dale,
- Thorough bush, thorough briar,
- Etymological note:thorough is the same word as the monosyllable through, becoming separated in Middle English. In Old English, they were both þurh. As prepositions are normally less stressed than the noun phrases to which they relate, through, as preposition, remained a monosyllable, as did the adjective meaning 'from end to end'. But the adjectival use meaning 'in every way', 'from end to end', 'throughout', was stressed, and thus realized as two syllables. In older forms of English, both modern through and modern thorough could be written either way: in Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night Dream, Puck's song (I i 2) contains the words
where the disyllabic pronunciation is required by the metre, and indeed the music, although the meaning is plainly that of modern through. (A similar usage survives in current thoroughfare, which although written and pronounced in the disyllabic way, has the monosyllabic meaning of 'from end to end'.)
- The development of þurh to words with one and two syllables is echoed by OE burh, which gives burg and borough; similar words with two syllables in modern English include sorrow, which comes from the OE monosyllable sorh, and furrow from OE furh.
