What is "thorn"

Thorn \Thorn\, v. t. To prick, as with a thorn. [Poetic]

I am the only rose of all the stock That never thorn'd him.
--Tennyson.

Thorn \Thorn\, n. [AS. [thorn]orn; akin to OS. & OFries. thorn, D. doorn, G. dorn, Dan. torn, Sw. t["o]rne, Icel. [thorn]orn, Goth. [thorn]a['u]rnus; cf. Pol. tarn, Russ. tern' the blackthorn, ternie thorns, Skr. t[.r][.n]a grass, blade of grass. [root]53.]

1. A hard and sharp-pointed projection from a woody stem; usually, a branch so transformed; a spine.

2. (Bot.) Any shrub or small tree which bears thorns; especially, any species of the genus Crat[ae]gus, as the hawthorn, whitethorn, cockspur thorn.

3. Fig.: That which pricks or annoys as a thorn; anything troublesome; trouble; care.

   There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me.
   --2 Cor. xii. 7.

   The guilt of empire, all its thorns and cares, Be only mine.
   --Southern.

4. The name of the Anglo-Saxon letter ?, capital form ?. It was used to represent both of the sounds of English th, as in thin, then. So called because it was the initial letter of thorn, a spine.

   Thorn apple (Bot.), Jamestown weed.

   Thorn broom (Bot.), a shrub that produces thorns.

   Thorn hedge, a hedge of thorn-bearing trees or bushes.

   Thorn devil. (Zo["o]l.) See Moloch, 2.

   Thorn hopper (Zo["o]l.), a tree hopper ( Thelia crat[ae]gi) which lives on the thorn bush, apple tree, and allied trees.

Old English þorn "sharp point on a stem or branch," earlier "thorny tree or plant," from Proto-Germanic *thurnuz (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Frisian thorn, Dutch doorn, Old High German dorn, German Dorn, Old Norse þorn, Gothic þaurnus), from PIE *trnus (cognates: Old Church Slavonic trunu "thorn," Sanskrit trnam "blade of grass," Greek ternax "stalk of the cactus," Irish trainin "blade of grass"), from *(s)ter-n- "thorny plant," from root *ster- (1) "stiff" (see stark).\n

\nFigurative sense of "anything which causes pain" is recorded from early 13c. (thorn in the flesh is from II Cor. xii:7). Also an Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic runic letter (þ), named for the word of which it was the initial (see -th-).

n. 1 A sharp protective spine of a plant. 2 Any shrub or small tree that bears thorns. 3 (context figurative English) That which pricks or annoys; anything troublesome. 4 A letter of the Latin alphabet (''capital:'' '''Þ''', ''small:'' '''þ'''), borrowed by Old English from the futhark to represent a dental fricative, then not distinguished from eth, but in modern use (in Icelandic and other languages, but no longer in English) used only for the voiceless dental fricative found in English '' '''th'''igh'' vb. To pierce with, or as if with, a #Noun

1. n. something that causes irritation and annoyance; "he's a thorn in my flesh" [syn: irritant]

2. a sharp-pointed tip on a stem or leaf [syn: spine, prickle, pricker, sticker]

3. a Germanic character of runic origin

Thorn is a 25-year-old fictional character in DC Comics, a superhero who suffers from multiple personalities.

Thorn is a surname that may refer to:

Thorn or Thorns may refer to:

Thorn was a college comic strip created by Jeff Smith at the Ohio State University.

Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children, previously known as DNA Foundation, is an international anti- human trafficking organization that works to address the sexual exploitation of children. The primary programming efforts of the organization focus on Internet technology and the role it plays in facilitating child pornography and sexual slavery of children on a global scale. The organization was founded by American actors, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher.

Thorn was a dog who received the Dickin Medal in 1945 from the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals for bravery in service during the Second World War.

The Dickin Medal is often referred to as the animal metaphorical equivalent of the Victoria Cross.

Thorn or þorn (Þ, þ) is a letter in the Old English, Gothic, Old Norse and modern Icelandic alphabets, as well as some dialects of Middle English. It was also used in medieval Scandinavia, but was later replaced with the digraph th, except in Iceland, where it survives. The letter originated from the rune in the Elder Fuþark and was called thorn in the Anglo-Saxon and thorn or thurs (a category of beings in Germanic paganism) in the Scandinavian rune poems. Its reconstructed Proto-Germanic name is Thurisaz.

It is pronounced as either a voiceless dental fricative or the voiced counterpart of it . However, in modern Icelandic, it is pronounced as a laminal voiceless alveolar non-sibilant fricative , similar to th as in the English word thick, or a (usually apical) voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative , similar to th as in the English word the. Modern Icelandic usage generally excludes the latter, which is instead represented with the letter eth ; however, may occur as an allophone of , and written , when it appears in an unstressed pronoun or adverb after a voiced sound.

In typography, the lower-case thorn character is unusual in that it has both an ascender and a descender.

Thorn is a fictional supervillain, and enemy of the Marvel Comics antihero the Punisher. He was created by Chuck Dixon and John Romita, Jr., and first appeared in The Punisher War Zone Vol. 1, #1 (March 1992).