entry
than
/ðæn/; /ðən/Word introducing the second part of a comparison
From Proto-Indo-European, through Proto-Germanic and Old English than (that).
from Proto-Indo-European *tóm, accusative masculine of *só (“that”, demonstrative pronoun). Cognate with Dutch dan...
from Old English þanne, a variant of þonne (“then; when; than”)
from Old English þanne, a variant of þonne (“then; when; than”)
from Middle English than, thanne (“than; then”)
Word Ancestry
from Proto-Indo-European *tóm, accusative masculine of *só (“that”, demonstrative pronoun). Cognate with Dutch dan...
from Old English þanne, a variant of þonne (“then; when; than”)
from Old English þanne, a variant of þonne (“then; when; than”)
from Middle English than, thanne (“than; then”)
English once treated “then” and “than” as the same word, because they really were the same word in Old English: þanne could mean “then,” “when,” or “than.” The comparison may have begun with a sequence like “A is bigger, then B”—a tiny time word gradually pressed into service as a comparison marker. By about 1700, English spelling finally separated the two, while Dutch kept dan for both “then” and “than”; German split the pair into dann and denn. Beneath this humble grammatical particle lies Proto-Indo-European *tóm, an old form meaning “that,” showing how a pointing word can drift from “that one” to “after that” and eventually to “bigger than that one.” Every time “than” ranks two things, it carries a faint grammatical fossil of an ancient gesture: “this one, compared with that.”
The Story
English once treated “then” and “than” as the same word, because they really were the same word in Old English: þanne could mean “then,” “when,” or “than.” The comparison may have begun with a sequence like “A is bigger, then B”—a tiny time word gradually pressed into service as a comparison marker. By about 1700, English spelling finally separated the two, while Dutch kept dan for both “then” and “than”; German split the pair into dann and denn. Beneath this humble grammatical particle lies Proto-Indo-European *tóm, an old form meaning “that,” showing how a pointing word can drift from “that one” to “after that” and eventually to “bigger than that one.” Every time “than” ranks two things, it carries a faint grammatical fossil of an ancient gesture: “this one, compared with that.”
Kin & Kindred
From 'than'·that; then; than
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Free Dictionary
Urban Dictionary
Wikipedia
Wiktionary