þri (Old English)

Where does "þri" come from?

The English word 'three' traces its origins back to the Proto-Indo-European root *tréyes. It evolved through Proto-Germanic as *þrīz before entering Old English as the ancestor form 'þri'. This ancient count is a linguistic sibling to many other languages, sharing structural roots with the French 'trois', the Russian 'три', and the Ancient Greek 'τρεῖς'.

Full etymology tree

• þri (Old English), 'three'
  • inherited *þrīz (Proto-Germanic), 'three'
    • inherited *þrijiz (Proto-Germanic)
      • inherited *tréyes (Proto-Indo-European), 'three'

Ancestors

• *þrīz (Proto-Germanic)
• *tréyes (Proto-Indo-European)

Cognates and doublets

• τρεῖς (Ancient Greek)
• trois (French)
• dri (Old High German)
• три (Russian)

Descendants and derived words

• thre (Middle English)
• threo (Middle English)
• thri (Middle English)
• thri (Middle English)
• thrie (Middle English)
• thrie (Middle English)
• þre (Middle English)
• þreo (Middle English)
• þrie (Middle English)
• þri- (Old English)

Updated July 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris