they: [12] Like their and them, they was borrowed from Old Norse. Its source was their, the plural form of the demonstrative adjective sá, and it replaced the native Old English pronoun hīe. => their, them
they (pron.)
c. 1200, from a Scandinavian source (Old Norse þeir, Old Danish, Old Swedish þer, þair), originally masculine plural demonstrative pronoun, from Proto-Germanic *thai, nominative plural pronoun, from PIE *to-, demonstrative pronoun (see that). Gradually replaced Old English hi, hie, plurals of he, heo "she," hit "it" by c. 1400. Colloquial use for "anonymous people in authority" is attested from 1886. They say for "it is said" is in Milton.
The most important importation of this kind [from Scandinavian to English] was that of the pronomial forms they, them and their, which entered readily into the system of English pronouns beginning with the same sound (the, that, this) and were felt to be more distinct than the old native forms which they supplanted. Indeed these were liable to constant confusion with some forms of the singular number (he, him, her) after the vowels has become obscured, so that he and hie, him and heom, her (hire) and heora could no longer be kept easily apart. [Jespersen, "Growth and Structure of the English Language"]
实用例句
1. They have maintained their optimism in the face of desolating subjugation.
面对遭征服的悲惨命运，他们保持了乐观的态度。
来自柯林斯例句
2. He said they should turn their fire on the Conservative Party instead.
他说他们应该掉转枪口，向保守党开火。
来自柯林斯例句
3. They found a labyrinth of tunnels under the ground.
他们发现了一处迷宫似的地道。
来自柯林斯例句
4. They stumble across a ghost town inhabited by a rascally gold prospector.
他们偶然来到一个居住着一位狡诈的淘金者的废墟之城。
来自柯林斯例句
5. They had a snobbish dislike for their intellectual and social inferiors.
