The Old English Letter That Still Exists in Our Most Common Word
Every word in the English language is made up of some combination of the 26 letters of the alphabet. However, the alphabet has undergone some changes since its inception sometime around 600 BCE. The letter “j” wasn’t added as the final letter until the 17th century, and one letter is
notable for its absence in the modern alphabet: thorn (þ). This character, which once held a prominent place in Old English writing, survives today in a curious way, its ghostly presence in the most frequently used word in the English language: “the.” Thorn — written as “þ” in its lowercase...
