/kwəʊθ/, /kwoʊθ/
OriginFrom Middle English quoth, quath, from Old English cwæþ (first and third person past indicative of cweþan (“to say, speak to, address, exhort, admonish”)), from Proto-Germanic *kwaþ (first and third person past indicative of Proto-Germanic *kweþaną (“to say”)). Unrelated to quote.
- archaic, defective, form-of, literary, pastsimple past of quethe; said
“Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore! / Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."”
““Pull, if ye never pull’d before; / Good ringers, pull your best,” quoth he.”
““Good morrow to thee, jolly fellow,” quoth Robin, “thou seemest happy this merry morn.” ¶ “Ay, that am I,” quoth the jolly Butcher, “and why should I not be so? Am I not hale in wind and limb? Have I ”
- archaic, auxiliary, defective, modal, nonstandardTo say.
“But the Healing-one stood before the under-king, and the under-king arraigned him, quothing, thou art the king of the Jews? the Healing-one quoths him, thou quoths.”
“The owner had the power of transmitting the possession to an heir by bequest, by quothing or speaking forth the name of the intended successor to the lord.”
““Why, no,” quothed Jonathan; “for to tell thee the truth, friend, though I am a man of peace, being of that religious order known as the Society of Friends, I am not so weak in person nor so timid in ”
Formsquoths(present, singular, third-person) · quothing(participle, present) · quothed(participle, past) · quothed(past)